Pukekohe's Drainage Scheme.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 142, 7 February 1916, Page 3

Pukekohe's Drainage Scheme.

fTO THE EDITOR.]

Sir,—Referring to a letter from an anonymous correspondent in your last issue, it may be as well for me to mention that the drainage report we have contains an estimate, but no details of how the estimate is made up. It appeared necessary to procure such details; it was elear that Mr Gannon must have had them ; he promised to send them; considerable time elapsed, many applications for them were made to him, but they did not arrive. Under such circumstances, unless we were to allow ourselves to be hung up indefinitely, it was expedient to get the details elsewhere. The engineer who was employed by Mr Gannon to take our levels and draw up our drainage scheme is now practising on his own account in Auckland, and thinking he might be able to give the required particulars, I applied to him and obtained them with little delay. The District Health Officer now requires the particulars in a slightly different form. If we get them from Mr Gannon, I presume his previous promise will hold good and that Mr Gannon's fee of £llO previously paid will cover the cost of these details; consequently no loss is occasioned by Mr Gannon by not consulting him, whereas if we can save time by paying a small fee and procuring the details more expeditiously from a gentleman who has less work on hand than has Mr Gannon (who informs us that he is engineer lor some ton or more local bodies) surely we are quite entitled so to do. Where is the indignity or impropriety ? You will notice that the gentleman concerned did not '

"assist " Mr Gannon, but actually did the work. Hence what we obtain from him may be expected to have exactly the same degree of reliability as the original report. Your correspondent will perhaps pardon me for suggesting that anxiety as to the dignity or propriety of tbe Council's course in this matter troubles him little. Of all the numerous gentlemen outside the present Council who have though fit since last municipal elections to assist the Council or ratepayers with advice or comment in your columns, none has been able to find a good word to say for the Council, and (except in one instauce) none have thought fit to sign his name and to take the responsibility of his own writing. Why should a man be ashamed of his comments ? Is it not an entirely honourable thing to assist with honest criticism ? When criticism is felt by the writer to be frivolous, when it is the outcome of vanity, jealously, or spite, or other improper motive (which, alas, one is most regretfully compelled to believe exist in relation to our public affairs) then one can quite understand a writer's apparent modesty in desiring to remain unknown, although the identity of your correspondents is not always lost to those who are acquainted with their characteristic phraseology and style, which is but poorly disguised in their correspondence. I do not know why this particular correspondent should be so solicitious concerning Mr Gannon, but I do not think your readers will be so misled as to pay much attention to or to put any special confidence in the suggestions of your anonymous correspondent; I think they will rather believe that if a man is sincere in his criticism, he will not blush to have it known as his ; and for my part, I do not propose to waste more time bothering about the remarks of such anonymous ones. Life is too short to waste time in doing so.—l am, otc. H. G. E. MASON.