The Evening Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2552, 22 April 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1871.

We cannot compliment the City Council on their activity in keeping roads and footpaths in repair, nor in going about their work in the most economical manner. Taking Leith Ward as an instance, there are crossstreets on which footpaths have been injured by works carried out by the Corporation, and where a few day’s work with a load or two of gravel, would have prevented farther damage, but which are now dangerous to walk over at night, and if longer neglected, will require very much heavier outlay. As a passing remark, too, the manner in which that part of the town is lighted at night, points to the carelessness of the Council in not insisting that where lighting is paid for, the light contracted for should bo supplied. Instead of that, an evident experiment is in course of being tried, to discover how little light the inhabitants will be content with. Where kerosene is used the greatest caution is observed that the glass in the lamps shall not be soiled with smoke ; and, as in the open air there is no danger of an unpleasant smell through imperfect combustion of the oil, as little flame as possible is allowed to glimmer—just sufficient to make darkness visible, and to bewilder the senses by a consciousness of imperfectly apprehended objects. It may truly bo said the glimmering light is “ seen through a glass, darkly.” But, returning to the subject of road mending, and, taking George-street as a specimen, we should like to have some clue to the reason why the most roundabout and expensive process is adopted instead of the cheapest and most direct. Let us contrast the way in which similar work is conducted by a private firm and by a Corporation j and then our readers will have a chance of judging whether the City funds arc made to do as much work as can be done for the money. The most systematically executed contract that we know of in the Province was the Graving Dock at Port Chalmers, carried out by Messrs. Connor and Me’Kay. On a comparatively small area of ground, they required a quantity of broken road metal—not a constant supply, like the Corporation—but a quantity that once laid on, rendered any special appliances of no further use. The way they went to woik was to place one or two otonebroaking machines near a quarry, and to have the metal broken before it was carted away ; so that one filling and one cartage to where it was to be spread was sullicicnt. The cost of breaking that road metal was from two pence to three pence a cubic yard. Let us now consider the Corporation process. First, they gather large boulders together into a heap in the bod of the Water of Leith. Secondly, they lift them from the heap into a cart. Thirdly, they tumble them out of the cart on to the side of the road, where they are allowed to lie in heaps; to the obstruction of the water-courses, and in a badly lighted street, to the manifest danger of upsetting some wheeled vehicle, or haply throwing a horse down. Fourthly, no doubt it is intended that those boulders shall be broken by hand, at a cost of somewhere about 4s Gd or 5s a cubic yard or somewhere about twenty times the cost to Messrs Connor and M'Kay; and moreover to ihe annoyance and danger to the eyesight of foot passengers through splinters of stone flying from the hammers. Fifthly, when the metal is broken, it is again to lift into carts or barrows, for conveyance to the place where it is required to be spread. Sixthly, instead of being ready for spreading at the most favorable season of the year, the work of reparation has been delayed until the roads will be so cut up in the winter as to necessitate using twice the quantity of metal that would otherwise be needed, and it will be laid on at a time when it will prove an annoyance for months, instead of a week or two. We defy the Council to disprove these statements, nor are they exaggerated. We do not know wJjuf can be urged in defence of such a

roundabout system. If it is attempted to be defended on the ground of providing work for men during the winter, we reply the excuse is not a valid one. There is plenty of work waiting to be done with the money that could be saved by a more business-like way of proceeding. Until all our streets and footpaths are formed and in good order, there is no fear of wanting moans to employ labor ; and the more work done for a given amount of money, the better it is for the workmen themselves and for every one in the City. Good roads within and without the City cheapen production, diffuse comfort, encourage trade, and find work for hundreds who, if shut up within the narrow limits of a town, without easy means of communication with the interior, Avould have to endure much privation and discomfort. And as stewards of the City funds, the duty of the Council is to do as much work as possible with the means at their command —not to try how little can be done.