DEFECTIVE RAILWAY MATERIAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4479, 28 July 1875, Page 3

DEFECTIVE RAILWAY MATERIAL.

We have before us the correspondence from the Agent-General, London, in answer to that from the Minister for Public Works which we published yesterday. DUPLICATE BILLS OF LADING. Writing on the 9th July, 1874, Dr. Featherston says that he regrets that any inconvenience should have arisen to the Government from not receiving the invoices and bills of lading of materials shipped so early as they could wish. He observes that every endeavor is made to forward the invoices and hills of lading by the mail following their receipt, but in some instances this is prevented by the invoices first rendered by the manufacturers having to be re-made, owing to the division and subdivision of the material after it has left the works, to meet the requirements of the emigrant ships ; and on the other hand, from the bills of lading not being received in time to enable the engineer to certify the invoices for the outgoing mail. He then makes a most economic excuse, and says : “ With respect to the duplicate invoices and bills of lading being forwarded in the monthly box to the Government by the mail via Southampton and Suez, this has been done to save the postage upon them, but in future they shall be forwarded as letters by the first outgoing mail.” WAIMEA WATER-RACE. With regard to the defective water pipes for the Waimea Water-race, George B. Bruce writes, for G. W. Hemans and himself, to Dr. Featherston ;—“ We beg to acknowledge the receipt of Memorandum No. 56-74, addressed to yourself, from the Public Works Office, Wellington. This refers to the condition in \vhich the Waimea water pipes were forwarded to the colony. It is there stated that there were cracked pipes in the shipments as followa : —City of Glasgow, 3 pipes ; McCallum More, 12 pipes ; J. A. Thompson, 10 pipes. There was no report up to date with regard to the Varuna. The three former vessels had on board, respectively, 174, 576, and 163 pipes. The report states that all the cracks in the pipes were, without doubt, in existence in the foundry, inasmuch as they were filled up and covered with the same material as the rest of the pipes. It appears from the above statement that the J. A. Thompson, which sailed from Liverpool, had 10 pipes cracked out of 163 ; whereas the City of Glasgow and McCallum More, which carried 750 pipes from Glasgow, have only 15 pipes cracked between them, or 2 per cent., whereas the J. A. Thompson was 6 per cent. You may remember that the contract with the manufacturers was for delivery f.o.b. in the Clyde, and they declined taking the risk of delivery in Liverpool, involving a long carriage and more transhipments; and the fact that so much larger a proportion of the broken was in the vessel which sailed from Liverpool, we think, evidently shows that there must be some error in the statement that the cracks were in existence in the foundry. We had an inspector resident upon the spot. All the pipes were regularly tested, and a considerable number were rejected as faulty. If any pixies were cracked prior to being coated by Smith’s patent process, it must have been done in the handling in'the yard, between the time of testing and coating. We cannot belli thinking, however, as already said, that, as indicated by the greater breakages from Liverpool, the bulk of them have taken place since the jiipes left the foundry. Wo were aware of the danger of pipes of such largo diameter breaking in transit, and, in consequence of this, all the pixies were made lin. thick instead of Jin., the thickness mentioned in the indent which came Home from New Zealand. If we had not taken this precaution, we believe that a much larger number would have been broken. Wo can assure you that every possible care was taken in their inspection.” BAD GOODS AND SHORT DELIVERY. Mr. Bruce also writes in relation to the inferior quality of the goods landed at Na]iier from the Queen of the South, and attributes the rust to the long time that the rails are left lying in the barges at the docks before shipment. As to inferiority of workmanship, he considers such impossible. One firm on which claims are made for defective goods had suspended payment. Throughout the correspondence, indeed, except in isolated instances, the same reply comes from consulting engineers and manufacturers, that the badness of goods and shortness in delivery is all a mistake. This as against the evidence of eyesight in the colony.