SCAMPING WORK.

Southland Times, Issue 1770, 22 July 1873, Page 3

SCAMPING WORK.

(to thb editor op the times.) Sib,— l haTB frequently read in your paper -Articles exposing wrongs, aud numerous are the wrongs and scamping of the work now being committed by the contractors working for the Tariouß Boad Boards now extant. Haying purchased land lately iii the Forest Hill district, 1 have frequently occasion to go through the Gap Road, by Winton, from the railway, through the catting in the bash. It is as much as my horses can do to draw their legs out of the stiff clay, coming above their knees, in a cutting through the bush which is a perfect quagmire. Sometimes they go into holes up to their bellies. The clay oat of two ditches, about 4ft. 6in. x 3ft., has been heaped into the middle, on the top of fascines composed of the tops of scrub or manuka, while the bottoms are taken for fencing, or left in the bush to rot. Now this rubbish is . little better than so much straw, as the foliage at both ends keeps the middles from going close, and a root or crabhole not filled up makes a formidable hole for a horse to put its root in. In another part I observed sawmill Blabs put down, which did better, but they were in several places ■napped in two, throuh being placed over empty crabholes, not having been bedded. In other places, the clay out of the ditches is piled on the edges, with the same scarp, and large trunks and roots of trees wedged up on the very edge, ready to fall in and fill up the ditch. For the whole of the twelve miles I have to travel, this mile and-a-half is the worst. Now this scamping of the work must be chargeable to theengineer appointed, if he has not experience in drawing up proper specifications, and does not see that the work is

1 well done. lam told the rubbishing fascines are . never counted, and will be found half the size they ought to be if pressed before boinz laid down. For four yenrs the Bettlers have been ' paying rates to moke this road, and several ' hundred pounds have been spent on it. This last time it would have been belter to have given the money to leave the road alone. The remedy i for the future is that the fuscines should b'j ' composed of the butt ends of the scrub (no foliage) or manuka not less than l£in. in diameter, [ and Fuwiuill slabs of totara or heart of black pine, from 9in. to 12in. thick. When laid, they 5 Bhould be placed laterally on one side of the road, opposite to where they are to be laid, inspector], and courted by the engineer ; crabholeß filled up J and levelled before laying on the whole of the I clay out of one ditch; not more than from 4in. to sin. of clay to be put on the top of the fascines when laid j and the clay out of all ditches, when not used for the middle, with trunks and roots of trees, to bo put from 2ft. fo 3ft. from the odge for ' the use of pedestrians. If possible, most of the road-making should be done in the summer time and then gravelled. Had these, or like clauses, I been inserted in the contracts, the present I may say criminal waste of money and labor, together with the vexatious hardships of the Bettlers. would not have occurred, and for the future, if applied, it will be for the public good — Yours, &c, A Disappointed Settled.