The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2919, 27 June 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1872.

Much as has been done in Dunedin for its improvement, and much as it has improved, there is still room for advance, Kerbing and channelling have done wonders for cleanliness of the streets, and where flagging and asphalting have been adopted, foot-passengers have reaped the advantage. The town and many outlying districts can now be traversed with comfort that wei'e almost impassable a few years ago ; and a certain method has been followed that to some extent has reconciled most people to wait patiently for the completion of what has been begun. The exceptionally fine seasons we have had for two years have, to some extent, blinded us to what is really necessary in the management of our municipal thoroughfares ; but the first touch of real winter has been sufficient to bring it to light. Nothing tries roads and footpaths so much as keen frost. If they are defective, the thaw is sure to make plain where. In some places where kerbing has been laid down and footpaths formed, if the precaution of putting on a few barrows full of blinding, broken stones, or gravel on the surface has be«n neglected, the paths are complete sloughs. The removal of the natural covering, hardened by exposure, has left bare an absorbent soil, which being first frozen and then thawed has become finely divided and mixed with the water which the kerbing prevents flowing off, and those footpaths are in worse condition than before They are seas of mud. So far as traversing the length of the streets is concerned, people able to keep their balance can manage to walk in single file along the kerbing without any serious inconvenience. The chief drawback is how to get on to the kerbing. In many instances the footpaths leading to private residences have been altogether destroyed; and, however neat and tidy the members of a household may be on leaving their own doors, the first half-dozen steps they take before they can reach the kerbing, render useless the time spent in preparing to offer the homage of reg spectable appearance at the shrine of society. Thus there is double waste : the time lost in useless cleanliness of dress, and the time spent in forming a footpath that no care has been taken to conserve. The last is really something for the City Council to consider. The work paid for is undone ; and when the asphalte is to be put on, there will be extra cost in proportion to the damage done to our footpaths. So with our roads. Wo do not know how the road arrangement stands between the Provincial Government and the Corporation in view of the Bill passed last session. That does not matter so far as the fact of mismanagement by one or other is concerned. In the work of conveying gas and water to different places, the surface of the road is frequently allowed to be broken through; but sufficient supervision is not exerted to secure the places being safely and properly made up. Along George street, beyond Frederick street, gross _ carelessness has been manifested in this respect. While the kerbing was proceeding channels were cut across the road, which, if filled up at all when the work was finished, Jjwere left in the roughest and most slovenly state, and for months a deep cutting across the road was left without any filling in. The same remark will apply to many other, streets in the town. We are surprised that no proceedings have been taken by cab-owners whose springs have been broken through these obvious neglects, to compel the Corporation to pay the cost of new ones. Several such accidents have been reported to us. With regard to scavenging the streets, it is done in a most primitive

style. For the past few clays they were three inches deep in loose black mud. For the removal of this no preparation has been made. The first morning or two after the frost a man might be seen at intervals sweeping the sludge aside with a street broom. Yesterday, in Princes street, an attempt had been made in one place to flush it down the channels. In the heart of the town a regiment of men were seen industriously brushing it from the centre to the sides of the street: and on the sides it lies. There were no mud carts to convey it away. It remains a trap to the unwary, or those whose vision is imperfect, many of whom will remember the mud pies raised by Corporation daymen because of being immersed in them as high as the calf of the leg, through mistaken confidence in their being the solid road. In all well ordered towns at Home, scavenging is done effectually at a comparatively light cost. Carts’ fitted with revolving brushes traverse and sweep the streets and load themselves with the slush. What a dozen men with two or three carts cannot do here is done by a one horse cart and two or three men. Why cannot Dunedin adopt the cheapest and best plan instead of resorting to the dearest and most ineffective 1 There is a very mistaken notion prevalent that the employment of men at such work does good, Tht absurdity of the idea is plain when it is reflected that if more public money is spent in doing certain woi’k than is necessary, there is so much less to spend in dc ing something else. The amount spent in employment would be the same were it judiciously laid out: the difference is that ill one case money is badly, and in the other well expended. This is a question candidates for municipal honors should be expected to be clear upon.