The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2080, 5 January 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1870.

The great difficulty experienced in the Colonies in the construction of public works, is that of learning what to do and how to do itH Even in small undertakings this has proved an incalculable loss, the aggregate amount of which it is impossible to estimate. In Victoria, undertakings apparently requiring little engineering skill were, in its early days, entrusted to so taMßhd practical men, who executed their in the roughest and cheapest style, without reference to scientific principles ; and the Government had to pay three or four cost the work could have been done at if properly constructed in the first instance. We doubt, however, if anything like the mistakes have been made there, in proportion to the work done, that have been committed in Otago, The laying out and construction of roads, bridges, reservoirs, embankments, and other ■works requiring engineering skill, have been entrusted to incompetent men, and there is not a person who has had occasion to engage a workman to do even the simplest job, involving a new application of art, that has not had reason to complain of the hasty, incomplete way in which it has been done. One plain reason for this is the want of knowledge on the part of the employer, and the assumption of knowledge on the part of the employed. This may be comparatively harmless where small sums of money are involved ; but where such a work as a railway is contemplated, a mistake in the plan, or in the person who has to supervise it, is a serious affair. The Government of Victoria early became sensible of the necessity for complete inquiry before the initiation of the railway system adopted there, and voluminous evidence was taken before they decided upon their plan. Very good reasons were adduced in favor of the heavy rails and expensive lines adopted there—reasons defensible upon the scientific attainments and mechanical advancement of the day. That subsequent inventions have induced more economical and labor-saving appliances is no condemnation of their plans. The, Government acted up to the light given them, after making every inquiry that lay in their power. In precisely the same spirit Mr Reid has acted in making pitblic the very able and. exhaustive report of Mr Millar on the Port Chalmers Railway. Nor can it be said that the educated public are unable to form a correct opinion of its merits, because they are not engineers. Most men of education are able to form a correct judgment upon scientific reasoning, although their habits of life and daily occupation do not enable them to gather together the data on which to found a theory. But Mr Millar has done more than any man in Victoria was expected to do. He has examined the evidence laid before the Government there and scrutinised it with that care and minuteness that one conversant with the subject in all its details alone can bring to bear upon it. He has evidently made the construction of that railway a study for years, for he states that he assisted Mr Swyer and checked his quantities in 1864, and therefore the plain inference is the plan and estimates he has produced are not got up for the occasion, but may be accepted as the result of careful study and thorough investigation of the subject. The research applied to this question may also be gathered from the appendices to the report, which not only give the items on which his estimate is based, but account for the differences between that and the estimate of Mr Swyer; and justify the opinion that the line can be constructed for the sum stated, by reference to several well-known lines of railway in Great Britain, We consider that the Province is deeply indebted to Mr Millar for this labor. By it the experience‘of Home and the neighboring Colonies is brought to bear upon our own necessities ; and a standard is given by which error may be avoided and a railway system initiated, combining utility with economy. The Province has thus received as a gift that which would otherwise have cost thousands of pounds to have secured. We may not accord Mr Millar a high meed of praise as an author. Literature is not his forte —perhaps his politics may be a little eccentric too. But these do not affect his attainments as an engineer. What the Colony wants is one capable of adapting means to an end. We can hardly doubt that Mr Millar’s plan must be. that which will form the bases of the line when carried out; and as Mr Reid’s well-known and commendable prudence will necessarily point out the necessity for supervision of the work, no matter who is .the contractor, as a point of honor and justice we think Mr Millar ought to be asked to undertake the task. Had the late

lamented Mr Paterson ID ed, of course this could not have been expected. The Provincial Government placed deserved trust and confidence in him. But this barrier to the prospect of receiving fee or reward for his long and laborious work, only renders Mr Millar’s gilt to the Province the more remarkable. We know there are those who differ from the writer of this article in the opinion lie is about to express ,• but be states it with every confidence, from long experience and opportunity of investigation and examination in various Colonies. The City of Dunedin owes much to Mr Millar for the immense work done in a few years and at less cost than has been spent on an _ equal amount of labor in any Colony in the Southern Hemisphere, Many men are men of words ; which go for what they are worth. By their works alone can we know them.