CONTRACTS V. CONTRACTORS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 274, 4 March 1879, Page 2

CONTRACTS V. CONTRACTORS.

To the Editor of Ike Akaroa Mail.

Mb. Editor,--Will you kindly allow mo space in your paper for a few remarks upon the way that the work is being done on the Long Bay road. Tenderr, when called for the above work, and specifications drawn out that the road was to be made twenty feet wide, the stuff, taken from the cutting to be thrown, off the road, the gradient to be kept the same as before, no packing or filling up on the low side of the road at all, and>the Clerk of,the Road Board was to come and place pegs on the lower side of the formed road to' mark its position every weekj so that the contractor would be obliged to do his work according to the specifications. When passing this work the other day, to my surprise I saw the contractors building a . wall of large lumps of clay round all those large slips, and rising the road fully a foot with the loose clay they were cutting from the banks, instead of going back five feet in the bank, only going about two feet, and not one peg could I see on the low side of the. road to mark the old bank. I consider that-if the Road Board allow such work as this to be passed, that they are committing an injustice towards the public. Myself, and many others spent a deal of time in looking over this road, and had it been let to us, I am sure we'should not ha%e been allowed to do the work in the way it is being done. Men cannot tell what to tender fur work if some are kept up to the specifications and others allowed to "do it as they like.

I conclude, Mr Editor, hoping that some abler pen than mine will t*ke the matter up and put it- before the Board's eyes in such a manner that they will be bound to take notice of it, and do justice to the ratepayers that they represent Yours, &c,

A CONTRACTOR.