The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1563, 30 September 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1881.

As most people in this district perhaps know, there is a suspension foot bridge over tho Greenstone Creek, at Westbrook. It is a "suspension" bridge now, in the very truest sense of the word. Many months agp the attention of the members'of the Grey County Council was directed to the very dilapidated state in which the so-culled bridge then was—that it was, in fact, not s if ( ; for human beings to risk their lives The County Council, after several appeals at last listened with attentive ear to the solicitations made for its restoration, and issued tenders callih" for the construction of a new wire suspension bridge ; and on the 31st March last, a coutract was signed, by Messrs Hayes and Lynch we believe, for the Erection of this bridge, which was to be finished on the 6th June following. About six days before this contract should have been completed we find the contractors applying for an extension of time, on account of " bad weather

and road being washed away." When' the " bad weather" occurred or what " road" was " washed away" which in teifered with the arrival of the materia for its construction, or which impeded the actual cotisti action, we are at a loss to know. Of a trmh, we have had a comparatively line winter. But sup posing we accept these somewhat tarfetched apologies as given, should they have interfered with the work so as to prolong the time of completion to three times that of the actual contract time 1 We trow not. We make these remarks in justice to the public and to the large population which has been and is still gathering to the vicinity of Cape Terrace. The present bridge is not safe; every person who passes over it to-day, as for several months back, ventures his other life in crossing it. It may not be believed, but this bridge is actually suspended from one end by ordinary fencing wire; the boards are rotten, and askew, and its collapse may be looked for at any moment. Such is the accommodation afforded at present for over 200 people who now inhabit or work at Cupe Terrace and its vicinity, and to whom this is the only track by which they can depart from or arrive at their homes and occupations. Was there no limit to the extension of time at which the new bridge should be completed ? Why this long delay ?