BOROUGH ENGINEER.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 16 March 1927, Page 6

BOROUGH ENGINEER.

COUNCILLOR CRAWSHAW'S STATEMENT. FIGURES QUESTIONED. Owing to pressure on our space yesterday we were unable to publisli the reply made by Councillor F. Crawshaw to the explanation of the borough engineer (Mr B. T. W. 0^Ten) at the special meeting of the Council on Monda3r night. This is now given. Councillor Crawshaw referred to the action of the engineer in raising the wages of a permanenl eraploj^ee of the Council without Ihe Council's sanction. Moreover, after a return of wages had been askerl for it was discovered that this particular 'employee had been receiving a sum of eight shillings per fortnight as overtime in a different department to which he was usually7 emploj'-ed. "The engineer informs us that this 8s was given as a ilat rate — that is, that employee might work four hours morc or less. Mr Owen admits that he passed the 8s because it cxa^tly^ paid the superannuation of the employee in question. The employee worked a full week on sewerage for 2s 6(1 per Jiour and lcindly worked' four hours overtime on waterworks at 2s per hour. This waterworks must have j been consistently convenient to require four hours' repair per fort- . night." His reason for considering the removal of the engineer desirable was that the Worlcs Committee. and he coukl speak- for the , majority of them, considered his i work unsatisfactory and too ex- j pensive, while his estimates were ' not furnished so as to provide a ; guide for future work. Extravagance j was very apparent to those who ^ooked about them. Take northern Thames street. The short area cosl | £900. Cljrde Street was intended to he covered with a light coat of ■raetal without paying too much attention to grade. But the street was graded and a tremendous amount of metal put on at a ridiculous cost. J With regard to the corner of Reed and Orwell Streets. instructio;isv were given, Councillor Deal, th^ Engineer, and the speaker heing present, to niake some small repairs at this corner. The work was to provide some relief to returned soldiers and was chosen.for that purpose because no expert workmen were required. The Engineer suggested £9 as being the estimated cost. A great amount of work was done by the pennanent staff, but it wa£ done without the sanction of any committee. A lot had been said about Lynn street, because work was being done that was not authorised. He knew that the Council would have to expend more than it could afford if the street. was to he finished properly. \ In this case, as in that of Clyde street, the jnterested part of. the Works Committee sacrificed their own time to meet the Engineer on tlie site and decided what was to be done. These in.structions were being far exceeded, and as a result of questions in October, tlre Council in Noyember resolved that the forming of Lynn street be completed. The "being c'oinpleted" sgnifies that the work had been commenced, and that without the sanction of the Council. The instructions were to kerb and chanriel metal and tar Steward street. This was done with a vengeance. In Committee the Engineer said that it was bnly a cheap job. When further questionedi he said that he was going to show how a street sliould be made. He aiso informed the, Council that there was 2in of metal arid ^in of tar asphalt still tc go on. The allocation of various amounts to difTerent accounts had from time to time greatly concerned the Works Committee, Many months ago on demanding the time sheets it was foiind that in connection with the carting of the material for the. North road channelling, the wages only of the lorry. driver had. been charged to 'that account, the balance of expense of carting being charged; to town accounts. The charge per hour of one lorry was 10 and the other 11s. It was no wonder that the channelling did not- exceed the estimate. Mr Owen. agreed to give a statement fortnightly as to expeiiditure but gave it only once. The Engineer a'dmitted, in the presence of three Councillors, when the crusher was nearly completed, that he had 60 yards of shingle (almost the firsl material on the job) and an amount of about £158 which he had not charged; to the crusher, but to town maintenanee. Having definite proof of this, the Committee could not treat any figures put before it with the same respect as was desirable. The set of figures concerning receipts" and -expenditure of , works placed before the Council -at last meeting could be accepted as correct because" the Engineer on being questioned admitted that some wefe estimates. It was pointed out that the amount of about £430,, now redueed to £105, in connection with the power for the crusher, had1 been omitted. This last statement re the crusher made the figures given a month ago re the cost of crushing absolutely worthless. The set of figures aiso given at last meeting re sewerage, in which Mr Owen showcd a large profit on his method of calculation, when dissected, showed a loss. This he admitted. Therefore the figures given by the E|i- 1 gineer many times appeared to be erroneous. A fortnight before the crusher was completed the speaker, at Mr Owen's request, invitedi tlie Council to be prepared for an opening ceremony. That was 12 months ago, but the ceremony had not taken place. In April last, Mr Owen had instructions to hopper the bottom of the 2iin bin, because at that time it took 20 to 25 minutes to load a lorry. Later on in the year he was instructed from the Mayoral chair to do so. In January the committee again begged him to do so. It was done last month and had proved a success and the. lorry can now be loadedi in eight minutes. Such neglect of orders was pure insubordnation. The Engineer was not prompt enough in doing some works authorised. * Towey street wa., six months on the books, Arun stnet, from Wansbeck to Tees street, nine months, Steward street 19 months, Stour street, kern and path, -eight months. -One inexplicable piece of manipulation of works which concerned the minds of many citizens was that almost two weelcs before the siphon came along Itchen street Mr Owen repaired that street. The speaker asked him to leave it because the sewer was ■ about to be put in. No! The maintenanee of that street was ordered over a year before. In June of las't year, in criticising the Enginecr's actions the speaker was called to hook and was requested to attend a meeting of the joint committee to prove his allegations. At this meeting >eleven councillors were present and the result of the meeting was a dccision that it bc recommended "That the duty of the engineer was to work in co-operation with and under the conlrol of tue Works and

Waterworks Committee, and to act on the instructions issued by their chairman or the Majmr. Councillor Grenfell 'moved, and it was recommended — "That the Engineer shall not undertake any work estimated to cost more than £5, or place any ord-er to the, value of over £5, except on instructions from a committee or its chairman. All orders for supplies to he in writing and initialled by a chairman." That was the opinio'n of 11 councillors on June 21, 1926. and they could not have been satisfied with the Engineer's methods at that time. What had forced some of ihose 11 councillors to alter their opinion? Councillor Crawshaw went on io say that the services of a highly pa'id engineer were not necessary for a few years. Tlxere were no works in the Borough with the "exception of the sewerage loan works that required expert engineering advice. Mr Williams was being paid for that advice. Any other work in contemplation or likel.y , to eventuate in the next three years could be carried out by a competent foreman. The policv of this Council for some years must he to maintain. 'but not to make to any great cxtent, because next >Tear interest and sinlcing fund to tlie extent in round figures of £6000, had to be found in excess of last vear, last year's being paid out of Joan. That lneant an extra rate of about 13d in ihe £. There was no reason why tlie Council could not pursue a maintenanee policy and; reduce the town maintenanee grant by say, £1500. plus tlie £500 of the Engineer's salary, and there by save as a set off agamst the inevitable 13d rate, an amount equal te nearlv 5d in the £. Councilor CraAyshaw concluued: I consider that in moving the motion this eA'ening I have at.least tried to do m> duty to the ratepayers and 'tried » to remedy a stale of atfairs that in my opinion should not exish