The Times Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1922. THE WRECKED ENGINE.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 785, 17 November 1922, Page 4

The Times Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1922. THE WRECKED ENGINE.

“We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.”

The adoption of that portion of the report of the Waterworks and Electricity Committee of•the Pdkekohe Borough Council which referred to the repair of the latest engine which was wrecked) in the power house must have come as an unpleasant to the ratepayers. The report states that Messrs Niven & Co. estimate the cost of repairing it at £750, and the Committee recommended that the order for the work to be undertaken be given at once_ It was stated that when repaired! the engine would be worth about £ISOO, but upon whose authority this statement was made (Joes not appear. / Now this engine was bought from the Gisborne Borough only* a few months ago for £IOOO. If it would be worth £ISOO when in a decent state of repair it must have sadly lacked, overhauling to have induced the owners to- part with it for the lesser figure, and. that may ac ;ount for it; falling to pieces like the Deacon's “Wonderful One-horse bbay." We may be well excused 1 for feel-

ing- sceptical about it being possible by any amount of tinkering up to make these fragments of an engine worth £ISOO, and we think the Council would have been well advised to sell the pieces for whatever they would fetch rather titan risk so large a sum as £750 of the rate, payers’ money in such an extremely hypothetical undertaking. And we certainly think the ratepayers ought to be informed how many other films were invited to give an estimate for the repairs, and what theftr estimates were', and also what authority there is (for the statement l would sell for £ISOO. The burden of rates in the Borough is so intolerable already, and the burgesses receive so small a return for it m public convenience, that the expenditure of so Barge a sum as £7oo should most emphatically not be undertaken speculatively. If ' n Council has ,a purchaser ready to buy the renovated engine we should quite approve of the repairs being executed but otherwise they should hold their hands. The matter can scarcely yet have gone so .far that they cannot reverse their decision.