New Brooms.

Manawatu Herald, 16 February 1897, Page 2

New Brooms.

The old adage aayi " New brooms sweep clean " and though this is not often applicable to many of the duties of life, it ia sufficient to remind ua that new officers are sometimes more alert than older onea. We have a point iv view, in fact we called attention last week to tha idea the Borough Councillors bad of their present Mayor, iv that he would make things hum, by showing that they were anxious to provide him with ptones and clay to I metal all our roads for years to coma. I While we have been calling out for roads we find from the reraiasness of I the late Mayor a very great deal of 1 our money has been wasted. This

is a serious statement to majce, but that it is true we will show. Before going into items we mention at once that we do not think the oversight of Mr Nye was intentional or from personal interests, but it is very regrettable. The cost of haulage of metal from the Messrs Robinson's pit was a bugbear to many councillors, and as it wa3 not only the cost of haulage but the expense such haulage caused on the already metalled roads, that an earnest desire was expressed to get metal down by rail. The most consistent councillor on this point has been Or Hennesßy, and prior to the Lady's Mile and the Avenue contracts being let, he again rww4 $5 Wicg for Paim&rston metal. Now the position of the metal pit used by the Borough is worse than the first pitj as it is on Me Nye*s land> and by the outlet given to it, drays have to get on the Wirokino road near the bend to the ferry, increasing the distance to be carted three quarters of a mile. Owing to the good nature of the Messrs Robinson the drays have been temporarily allowed to go through their property, but this has only been granted to the contractors, not to the Council, so that the Borough has had to pay on their contracts the increased mileage. Why the Council never insisted on a direot roai by Mr Nye's front entrance we do not know, as if that waa obtained, the old pit and the present one would not have been so different in position. The details of these pits are necessary to show what we have lost. The tenders for carting gravel j to the Lady's mile and the Avenue j were five shillings and threepence a yard, and added to which the metal is so inferior for binding that clay should be spread over its surface to make it an approachable job to what the Palmerston metal would be. When Pdlmerston metal has been spoken of in the Council, the late Mayor, Mr G. Nye, informed the members that he had frequently inquired into the cost and found it prohibitive, as it Would cost close on ten shillings a yard. The present Mayor and Councillor Hennessy have, al last, found that this is not so, but that the Railway will carry, for local bodies, gravel, in lots not less than ten tons, and at the convenience of the department, at one shilling and eightpence a yard under 27 miles. We understand that supposing a pit, which is said to be procurable, was alongside the railway siding, gravel would be loaded at sixpence a yard, add one shilling and eightpenoe for haulage, the local drays would fill at sixpence, and the haulage would be about a shilling a ton per mile. The total cost on all contracts two miles away from the railway station would cost only four shillings and eight pence per yard, reducible in proportion as to how much metal had to be carted within the first mile ; while on the Lady's Mile and Avenue jobs the cost has been five shillings and threepence, thus making our loss on the late contracts seven pence a yard, and how much this would come to during the last three or four years is one any councillor can tot up on reference to the council books. !~A saving of this nature Would tempt ! the Burgesseo to agree to a purchase of a gravel pit, as it would be almost | buying a gravel and day pit combined. .