That Bridge Again

Manawatu Herald, 3 March 1894, Page 2

That Bridge Again

Are our friends across the water too much cast down by the very abrupt refusal they got from the Premier to help them with the bridge so that they cannot try to secure its erection in any other way ? They have taken the initiative and must keep moving though their hearts be heavy. The Premier, for reasons best known to himself, refuses to lend a hand, which looks, because it is that voters are few, it will therefore be all the more possible to place before him the fact that the local bodies are thus not wealthy. It is evident he must have some idea as to what a bridge would cost, \ii so, the question naturally arises, have the petitioners also the know- i ledge ? For our own part we have heard of no authoritative statement to that effect made by any one connected with the Horowhenua County Council. It is an old saying and a good one, that it is inadvisable fco count' your chickens before they are hatched, and in like manner it is but a poor plan to suggest ways ot findiug interest; upon an indefinite amount. It would appear that the next 3tep to be taken is to ascertain without; doubt what the cost of a bridge would be, and it might be possible to secure tho assistance of the Government as far as this. In our local bodies, building large bridges is of very rave occurrence, and therefore the engineering staff employed are htvrdly up to such requirements. To pay for a design of a bridge when the outlook for its successful erection is not hopeful, is unlikely to find favour with those who have all they know what to do to make ends meet in the administration of a county, and to ask that a competent gentleman from the Public Works staff should do this work appears to be most reasonable. Th" jump from finding one* third of the cost of erection to finding the plans and estimates for a bridge is so great that even a Liberal Minister might harken to the prayer of the nojr and needy At anyate it is worth trying. From some little experience in rougE estimated of this kind we think it possible that the cost might work out to a sum quite within the capacity of the two counties to risk, and we have but little doubt but that che tolls would very soon recoup the annual outlay. At present,-as we mentioned at the firat, the members of the Horowhenua County Council first broaohed the subject, and it is their duty " to keep the game alive." Persistency in a good cause is a virtue, and it does not. pay the public to accept a Ministerial refusal as a decisive answer. We hope that our neighbours will prove their superiority to despondency and try again.