LOCAL VERSES IMPORTED SLEEPERS.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 74, 13 September 1879, Page 2

LOCAL VERSES IMPORTED SLEEPERS.

It may be remembered that, some few months ago a statement was mario tiiat m consequence of the Public Works being viable to sleepers m, ttiis

colony, the Engineer-in-Chief had advised the importation of 100,000 from Tasmania. In- one of the papers laid upon the table of the-Hou«e, which has lately come to hand, we find the j following memo, from Mr. Blackbtt to Mr. Mao ANDREW: — "The cost of the sleepers delivered into trucks i at Waitarais from 4s. Bd. to 45.; lOdj. each. TThey are oE. Tasmanian harawdod;""and are procured from Tasmania *'•*'■* * * Tenders had being called for 100,000 m the colony without a single response." It may be fresh m the minds of our readers fhat when the statement was made tha^ the quantity, asked for could not beproourpd, we gave it not only a flat contradiction, biitf we pledged our reputation that 100.000.W even 10.000,000 could be easily obtained m the Manawatn alone, and at rates considerably below thnt for the.irnnorted article. , The challenge was taken lip, the advertisements inserted m papers which Vimilated m timber restricts, and now the first hun-. dred thousand have been supplied, while one firm alono ha? taken a contra.f«t. for^the'^econd. to the official statement -pf the •Engineer-in-Chief. thftislpepe.rs from Tasmania cost 4?. 10rJ. landed w Waitara,- while the New-Zealßnd'articlp^hasibeen tonderpd for to our knowlwlfff ab 3«r.=:4c1., t.hns leavinsr n bnliinoe infavor of the latter of ijSi.fid. ,)T^ns itfwjllbe seen that m the purchase of a million not only a clear saving of £75,000 wonl d be effected, buCnea'rly : 'ti'cfn&rtef a tnillioh' df money woiild be kept'withiti the country, which it was proposed to send but'of it: ' There has been a jrr^at deal of inbilation over the sriccessftrif passing of the Lpdn-.-Bi.il , and people are looirinsr auxionslv to the arrival of the £5.000,000 which it i« souglit to raise. Well, no doubt it will be a powerful 'lever to irrease 1 the ; wheels of tho Statpleoaeh'.whick .now; isi at In. : sta»id-Sitilliiftn't' ai-day,- pf. 'reckoTjinor willj ■Cpme,'' f and^.nH.snmiwiltl hajve .to .be,ir : p-| •■paiflj-T^ith- 1 interest." ,WpXvby > \nP,vmfßUS ; wish it tn be jmaginod that we cousMer: itfimpoiiti^oi.bW'iTfff.the money; far from it. But it does appear strange, t,hat ( ou r I ''. ,riileTs .and , legi nJ atprs slioul cl^e! 'kWehly 5 aliveW+hirVfflu^ <M the* £olPn; lever, nnd yet almost blind folded be4ed to send 'so 'much oWof for a commodity of which we can get such a plpntifi\l| supji)^ at^etter-terihß m our very'midsti We-by np' means wish to sound our owrrpr^ise^bntwe certainly <\o take rrectit toftnrsolves for stopping Lthe ; w ! hple,B,a.le^^^^ jsl fepej^^aTJd yembying tn'fi ilibel upon the 'pnergieV of "our ; Rfiw-tniilers 1 "a'n'd^^ne ..timber, resources of, New Zealand. •