ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 603, 24 January 1852, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealander.

Sib, — The Burgesses have now before them the report of one of the Sub-committees of the Com-* raon Council upon the roads in the several rural districts of the Borough, which, as the Sub-com-mittee inform us, has been compiled " after considerable labour." The result of this report is certainly astonishing, for we are informed that £232,332 are required to construct all the projected roads in the rural wards. It is foitunate for the public that the Sub-committee give us their figures, and the mode by which the result is obtained — each man now can judge for himself. The Committee it appears obtain certain information from the Superintendent of Public Works as to the average cost per mile of the various roads undertaken by the Government, and then apply this average cost to all the roads laid out in the Borough. This is manifestly a fallacious modo of reasoning. The roads undertaken by the Government have been the main lines of traffic, and of com so the most expensive both in construction and repair ; but four-fifths of the length of road, given by the Sub-committee, /u-e io.h la which lead only and give access to the neighbouring farms. Most of these roads or by-ways require no expenditure at all ; upon others only a very small sum would be required to make them practicable, and yet the Committee gravely report

thai an expenditure upon these cross-roads is needed equal in amount per mile to tue cost of the main road to Onehunga ! In the figures given by the Committee of the cost of (lie construction of the p.'ojotfed roads, thci'o is invariably i\ddc>H > ~V cost the estimated expense per ipl '<. impair — a course which tcutl'j oaly io <.i „• I aau exaggerate the total. The Committee tell us that the (Jovornment have made a groat mistake in metalling only to such a width as bniely to admit of one vehicle passing another. This v;o are told is -wrong in point of economy as it increases the wear and tear. Surely furh economy as this is like letting out at the b'tng and screwing a t the tap. To carry out ti c economical principles of the Committee, the Burgo&scs must pay hundreds of pounds per mile to metal wide roads foi the sake of saving a few pounds per mile in repairs Another instance of the unfairness of this report is to be found in the attack upon the Superintendent of Public Works. The Committee inform us that " Mr. Wood states each mile" of the Otahuhu Ward " cost £200," and then they go on to show from other sources of information that such a statement must be incorrect, as one mile cost a great deal moie than £200 ; but the cost given by the Superintendent in the information afforded by him to the Committee, as given in their own report, is clearly slated as the average cost of the whole road per mile, and any one who V.s ever travelled over it must know, that from the nature of the country, the expense of opening this road, near Otahuhu, must have been forty or fifty times greater than the expense of opening it near Auckland, so that it may be true that at one end the road may have cost X4OO a mile, and at the other end only £10 or £Vl a mile; and yet the average cost per mile might not have exceeded the £200 stated by the Superintendent. Sir, it would be too long a business to go through the whole of this report, but the same unfairness — the same attempt at exaggeration— the same petty fault-finding runs like a thread through the whole, rendering what might have been valuable to Ihe community perfectly useless. — I am, Sir, &c, &c., A Burgess. Auckland, January 22, 1852.

To the Editor of the New Zeat,ander. Sir, — In your article this morning upon Steam Navigation, you are pleased to say " when Fulton, the American, with the go-a-head energy of his country." Now, will you permit me to say, that Fulton was a Scotchman, who, disappointed of support in his efforts to introduce Steam Navigation at home, emigrated to the United States, ■where he was enabled to bring into practice the information and ponderings he had garnered in the West of Scotland. Citizen or the World. Jan. 21, 1852.