NOTES FROM NELSON.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 261, 20 February 1886, Page 2

NOTES FROM NELSON.

(from our own correspondent.) February 15th.

Public interest for the past week or more has been centred in a serious accident which occurred on the 7th instant to a brick culvert in course of construction by the City Corporation; the damage consisting of the fall of the portion of an arch which had been built and injuries of a serious uature to three men engaged on the work. This intended structure is on the schedule of the proposed works for which the Council raised the £IOOO loan some months ago, the ratepayers having been wheedled into voting tor it believiug that they would be able to get a good slice from the General Government under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act, and after they had committed themselves to authorising the Council to raise this money for a lot of needless and extravagant works, they discovered that no money was available for the real purpose .they had in view ; viz :—the road rouad the rocks. Anyhow, the schedule provided for an expenditure of some £460 to span a small creek known as the Brook. It was intended to be a structure worthy alike of the loan, the Council, and the engineering talent of the City Surveyor. This gentleman has for many years devised and carried out the necessary works connected with the streets, drainage, and water and gas services for the ratepayers, and in his long career has not heen free in many cases from adverse criticism. The Council with a loyalty to their executive officer beyond all praise, have not only approved of his work, but have occasionally passed flattering resolutions as to their appreciation of his manifold virtues. He is fond of striking out in the direction of novelties in engineering science is this city surveyor, and sometimes experiments expensively at the ratepayers' cost. This accident in Nile street is the outcome of an experiment of his in trying what tricks can be played with lime and Portland cement mixed together in a maimer not known to anyoue else in the profession ; but as the sympathising councillors put it, " He has gained a great deal of knowledge at our expense, and we don't want to lose •all that." This miserable culvert business is somewhat as follows :—The span is 25 feet, and the architect provided in his specification for an arch with 4 p t. loiu. rise. The nature of the ground would

have allowed of another two height to llio arch, and have left ample water

way, but, !br experimental reasons perhaps he preferred Lie flatter aud, consequently, less pafe height. The Council found all materials and centreing for building the arch with, an-' the contract was let for labour only. The m< rtar used was the most extraordinary stuff ever compose! for the purpose of causing bricks to adhere together. Mortar used in ail Government contracts is composed of three parts of sharp clean sand and one part of Portland cement well incorporated together, mixed with water to a proper consistency and used at once. Delay in using deteriorates it, and a lapse of an hour is fatal to its strength : whilst, it properly used, it will set hard enough in 24 hours to be strong enough to take the frames away, or if on a level surf ice for a man to walk on with nailed boots without leaving an impression. Bit the stuff used for mortar in this culvert was composed of sand which had a greasy kind of clay mixed with it, and of ordinary made np into common mortar ; and this afterwards had a dash of Portland cement put into it, with the result that the lime and cement there and then mutually destroyed the virtues of each other. So that it came about, when tlu centres were being drawn, the so-calie I mortar, being no better or worse than so much mud, had no binding properties, and the bricks, following the law of attraction of gravitation, fell into t'»e bed of the creek, nearly killing one and badly damaging two other men. This happened on a Saturday afternoon, aud one would naturally have expected that, at the earliest possible date afterwards, say on the Monday, the city council would have met and held a searching enquiry into the causes which had eventuated in the accident, and have endeavoured to saddle the blame on the individual who was in fault; for it was, so tar as the public knew then or know now, an open question whether the engineer or the contractor was to blame. Of course, as the council found all material and exercised supervision over the labor, there could presumably be no fault attachable to the contractor. It is possible he did not employ skilled labor, and that he slummed the work. I say it is possible, and that is as far as it is competent for me to go in excuse to the other party ; but the fact remains that the council, through its executive offi.-cr, held the right to control the manner in which the contract should be carried out, and were evideutly satisfied, for the city surveyor himself gave the order to strike the centres.

After the accident overtures ware made to the contractor to resume the work, but he fl\tt!y refused to lift a brick without a guarantee against future liability or loss, and with a promise of payment for the loss already sustained by him, and gave nocice of discontinuance of his work. Then the council held a meeting on the Wednesday to consider the position. It was a meeting such as the Jesuits hell duriug the days of the Inquisition ; closed doors, press and public strictly prohibite 1 from prying into the dread secrets of the chamber ; three lawyers and a bevy of councillors discussing with " bated breath and whispered utterance " the specification, and explanation of the city surveyor for a couple of hours. Then the contractor, who had during all this time been cooling his heels outside, was called in and asked like a prisoner at the bar ,; if he had any statement to m ike." He, appalled at the array of legal talent, thought of the maxim " Speech is silver, silence is gol en," and widely declined to Bay anything ; espociaily as he had asked and been refused permission to have a solicitor to watch his case in the Jesuitical Inquisition. But, in reply to a question, he admitted having stated out of doors that the " mixture" was no good for mortar, and he was then told he could go. It has also leaked out that the couucil then passed a resolution approving of the city surveyor, his plans, his specifications, his " mixture" and his brilliant success, and they then instructed the cler'.i to give the contractor 24 hours' ni tice to pr >ceed with his work or suffer the pains aud penalties liable to be inflicted on him for want of faith in the experimental originality of the surveyor's compo.

Now it is the general opinion of the public that the corporation have acted very unwisely in the action they have taken. They feel that heavy damages will have eventually to be paid, and consider it the dutj of the guardians of the city purse to at once enquire how far they are liable and whether they can see the end of the business. It is one of those unfortunate cases where the council will lose nothing by taking the public into their confidence; and where the first loss is their least. Loyalty to an old and experienced officer is a very laudable virtue in a corporate body, but loyalty and integrity towards the ratepayers they represent is far more to the purpose, and more closely allied to the duties they were elected to preform. Their reticence, and unwillingness to proceed with an enquiry which surely must be held sooner or later is very childish, aud tends to weaken that confidence which ought to exist between representatives and constituents.

After an absence of some thirteen years from the coast, I took a trip down there a week or two ago, and visited the coal mines both at West-port and Grey mouth, and I must acknowledge to a feeling of dissapointmeat at the results of the large public expenditure which has taken place there. At the latter place especially, the attempt at harbour construction has so far had the effect of shifting the bar of die river a quarter of a mile or so further into the Pacific Ocean, and nothing more, for there is no more water on the bar than there was 20 years ago. For instance at high water the " Grafton " could only

find feet, find tTie sea as smooth a* a mill pond ; so far as I pan judge of the matter any further expenditure will not have any better result. Enough money has been expended there to have constructed a really safe harbour at Tort Elizabeth, four miles further north. But when this project was mooted some 20 years a<jo, the provincial jealousies existing b3tween Nelson and Canterbury which the Grey liiver divided, caused the better scheme to be shelv. d on account of the greater weight the province had. I was « resident on the Nelson side at the time and well remember how scornfully my powerful and numerous enemies treated iny ideas. Now, however the Grey County embraces the whole field, and they find that all the lavish assistance they have received from Government is virtually thrown away and are deploring their mistake; and I queston if the present price of to. 1 (12s (id per ton) will ever be reduced to any extent. At Westpoit operatious have only reached the stage of laying down a tramway for conveying stone to the river, and no work bo far as the breakwater or training wall has yet been commenced; but the Buller river having a much greater volume of water than the Grey, there will in all probability be a much great* r chance of a successful deep water channel scoured out on the bar. Here, however, there is » drawback, so far as an extensive coal trade is concerned. The railway line runs along the foot ol the mountain range from Westport to the Waimangaroa Creek, and the two coal mines at work are situated on top of the mountains' The connection between the mine 3 and the line is by means of inclines, which are not capable of delivering more thaan 590 or (300 tons per day; so that the output of the district is limited to that quantity; an absurdly small amount to spend £400,000 on for harbour improvement. Had the line been constructed a certain distance inland and followed the contour of Mouut Kochford, till the actual site of the coal workings had been reached, and which could have been done I am told with no worse grades than 1 in 50, there is an unlimited area of coal to work upon; but making a second railway through the rough country to be encountered is a work of some magnitude and the colony has already pledged its credit to such large sums for the coal mining interests that there will be considerable hesitation on the part of Parliament before consenting to the expense of another railway for t e one object. One chance the Westport people have in their favor. That chance is the posession of the most ass duous beggar in Parliament as their member. Mr Eugene Joseph O'Connor at bouncing, buttonholing or begging has no equal in the colony; And no matter how incredulous his listeners may be, he has such a convincing w:ty with him that he generally gains his point. At the present time he very much resembles tha cannibal sailor in the Woeful ballad " Midshipmite." I'm the cook and the captain both, And the mute of the Nancy brig, The bosentite, and the midshipmite, And the crew of the captain's gig! Tor he is M.H.R. for the district, he i:< Chairman of the Buller County Council, li 3 is Chairman of the Mokihinai Coal Company, and he is the embodiment of everything in the shape of supreme authority in the district; and woe be to the man who dares to questiou his autocracy. Whether the monopoly of all this administration for the Buller is a good thing for the public at large is an open question, but the gentle Eugene has plenty of self-conf deuce and that goes a long way, and answers in many cases for a deficiency of other virtues. KORARI.