ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. A VOICE FROM MANIOTOTO COUNTY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 820, 4 January 1878, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

A VOICE FROM MANIOTOTO COUNTY.

[I Ve do not hold ourselves responsible fur opinions expressed hj correspondents.]

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUNSTAN TIMES.) Sir lii a local in your issue of the 21st instant, you state! - “The Mount Ida correspondent of the Brnoe Herald most ingeniously credits ]Mr Brown, Engineer of the Maniototo County, with the system adopted in that County of contracting for the maintenance an 1 repair of the roads. As the system was initiated hy the Vincent County authorities and was in vogue some six monthsjhefore the Maniototo County was in existence, it appears to ns the credit (if any) is wrongly bestowed.” I presume the Bruoe Hera d’s Mount Ida correspondent did not sufficiently define Mr Brown’s system fo • which ho cloms the credit of originality and lienee your remark, “ it appeal's to us the credit (if any) is wrongly bestowel.” Of (ourse, I willingly admit that the system of contracting for the maintenance and repair of roads was initiaten by the Vincent t'ouury authorities before the Maniototo ('minty Council had an existence, but the originality of Mr Br ava's system, for'which I think he deserves credit, consists iu this; -that the yearly contracts on the rna 's of the Maniototo County include Jormatjpn as well as maintenance. The County Council guarantees a minimum of half-a-mile of permanent for-’ niation which may be increased ns funds permit, besides ditching, cu!verting, &e, according to Schedule rales specified in the Contract, the permanent work to be completed by the end of March in each year. An inducement is thus offered to contractors to tender low for the surfacing,’ seeing that, during the five or six months of the year, when, under the ordinary syst m they would have little or in thing to do, they will have full employment in formation, gravelling and ditching. The-e will also he this advantage to the County that when, during the summer months, surfacing has to he attended to, it will be done well and quickly, so as to leave the contractor free to resume tbe operations which pry him best. I think, Sir, that without taking up any more of your space, I have sufficiently shown that Mr Brown does deserve the credit of initiating a main enance contract system, which promise tube both economical and effective.—Yours, to., JR. Holland Blackstone Hill Station, December .'IE 1877-