The Awahuri Bridge.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 118, 23 April 1885, Page 3

The Awahuri Bridge.

1 Old Grumble m Feilding Star] But what is there m the paper yon see, Mrs Grumble, thnt makes you gape like a hen with the croup ? Oh ! a telegram, is it, from the Agent-General, Btating it behoved Now Zealand to hasten the completion of her defence preparations. It would have been more sensible of him to have Bent word that it behoved them to hasten the completion of the bridge at A wahuri, so that people could cross the river without risk to thf mseles and certainty of • damage to their conveyances. It is three months since the contract was let and the time expired on the 20th instant, .Thfee months of gloriuus weather, with nothing to prevent the work from progressing, and yet the bridge is not half finiohed: You aafc the reason, Mrs G.? Well, I don't mind enlightening yon. It is because the contractor, instead of honestly setting about the work, fishes for some one to sub-let it to, who m his turn, merely takes it as an opportunity of disposing of his timber, and again the thing is sub-let, until six weeks had transpired before a stone was turned. The consequence is that the time has elapsed, and still there is no bridge. Now, shall the public suffer through the cupidity of such men ? There is a penal clause m the contract of £2 per day. Will the Council inflict it? Grumble will wait and nee. If they do — if they sacrifice the public for the benefit of the contractors — if they do not act strictly to the letter — then their destiny as County Councillors shall have as sharp an ending as a mosquito's !