THE METALLING WORKS.

Putaruru Press, Volume II, Issue 28, 24 April 1924, Page 2

THE METALLING WORKS.

IT is very satisfactory to have the county engineer’s statement, in his report to this month’s meeting of the Matamata county, that the gravel put on the Putaruru-Tirau road is intended as a preliminary coat for a main highways surface later. Also, we understand, the Overdale metalling is to start this week, and, although it is somewhat late in the season the weather at present gives grounds for presuming that, with expedition, the work may be completed before the winter weather sets in. In regard to the Puketurua metalling the mistake of using the class of material put on so far is frankly admitted, and as there now appears good prospects of concluding arrangements for obtaining the better material from the Public Works pit, the resumption of the job will doubtless be with this. At the same time the question of invariably calling tenders for all county contracts has not been disposed of, and, although in the world of private commerce the calling of public tenders is often considered less businesslike than lotting work at a price mutually agreed upon to a contractor whom the employer knows to be reliable and satisfactory, this method in public business is only too apt to cause suspicion and trouble, as past comment and happenings in these parts testify. Thus, as the confidence of the ratepayers is essential to the smooth working of the county administration and will be a very important factor in the' voting on the further county loan proposals which the council now contemplates, the authorities will doubtless find it a wise course to avoid anything that might in any degree upset such confidence.