OLD FASHIONED AND OLD WOMANISH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 126, 6 September 1910, Page 7

OLD FASHIONED AND OLD WOMANISH.

COUNTY COUNCIL AND ITS ENGINEERING. CRITICISM FROM WITHIN. One of tlie most forcible speeches heard at the County Council table for some time past was given at the annual meeting' yesterday when Councillor Allanson replied to criticism of his motion, moved in accordance with notice, that the Council employ an eiigmeei;, to give the whole of his time to the Council. In presenting his motion, he said he considered tiie Council's works too big a concern to be left without an engineer, and he was of opinion that it would lie better to have an engineer entirely in the Council's employ than to have occasional service from an outside en-! gineer. The Council should have a man of greater calibre than its foremen.! With the bridge-building in prospect he! thought the Council would easily save in fees the amount of the engineer's sal-1 ary.

Councillor Carter seconded the motion pro forma. Councillor Stevens said he could not see how the Council could afford to pay the salary of an engineer. They would have to pay a good strong figure to get a good man. The Council had a set of good foremen, and he did not think the Council's experience of engineers would lead them to support the motion. Councillor Hopson considered it would be better to pay an engineer as required. Again, engineers had a habit of doing more work than was required. He did not think the Council would have any substantial work to show for the salary. Councillor Andrews objected to the motion on the ground that if an engineer started bossing their foremen the latter would pack up their tools and go; and then the Council would have to get a lot of duffers. Again, the foremen, having an engineer to lean on, would do no more than was set them by him, and would lean on their shovels between his visit#. Councillor. Tate said he knew Foreman Holmes wouldn't work under an engineer. In his own riding there was no need for an engineer. If they were opening up new country it would be different. Councillor Hill mentioned, as Councillor Hopson had done, that the neighbouring Clifton County Council had found it better to do without an engineer.

Councillor Carter said he thought he could bowl over some of the statements made. Perhaps his riding had the least need of an engineer. In the next year or so the Council was going to employ an engineer and an overseer on the new Moa Riding bridges, and the appointment of a eounty engineer would be far less costly. In the past four years the Council had paid £1473 9s Id for engineering, which worked out at about £367 a year. In expending the Moa Riding bridge loans of somewhere between £6OOO and £7OOO, they would find that the fees for supervising would cost from £3OO to £4OO, and the engineer would not be able to put in the same time on the works as if his whole time was paid for by the Council. He did not think that, as a general rule, a county engineer was required/ but then it seemed to him that the Council would be able to get the engineering on these bridges and the supervision of the county expenditure generally, done for an. amount equal to what it was going to cost the Council for supervision of these bridges alone, it would be good business to employ their own engineer. He entered a protest against the tendency of the councillors to depreciate the value of engineers. There were very good engineers, just as there were good councillors, and good surfacemen. As

regards the objection raised to the appointment of an engineer lest there should be difficulty with the present surfacemen, that was a very weak position to take up, and not the position that any councillor should take up as a man in charge of the business of ratepayers, for it was an objection that they would not tolerate in their own affairs. Councillor Andrews: Where is there an engineer thai knows anything about roads?

The chairman was satisfied with the present system. The engineer would supply reports just as the foremen did now, and probably his requisition for stone would have to be cut down just, as the foremen's did. He didn't attach any importance to the argument that the foremen wouldn't work under, the engineer. If the foremen took up that stand, they would have to go. He and his fellow members had practically decided to carry out as many of 'he bridges as possible by day work, believing they would get as good" work for less money. Counties which had engineers had no bettor roads and no more money than this one.

I Councillor Allanson. in his reply, said Ihe had been surprised at the remarks lof some councillors. He strongly endorsed Councillor 'Carter's closing remarks concerning the surfacemen ana I their probable attitude towards an on- | gineer. "I verily believe," he said, "that | we are being dominated by the surfaee- . men. We are ruled by the surfacemen. If they are going to rebel, the sooner we have an engineer the better." He was sorry that he had so misjudged the calibre of the councillors, and credited them with advanced and go-ahead ideas which they apparently did not possess, if he -were to judge from the remarks of the councillors that morning. They said practically that "engineers are perfect fools," as if it were not possible for an engineer to be a capable road maker. His riding had as gooc 1 a main road, he supposed, as any. but what was it? The metal had not been properly put down, and there were great ruts; in it, so that it would all have to come up again. Such a thing as that would j not occur if they had an engineer to supervise the metalling. Apart altogether from bridges the Council could save money by appointing an engineer and get their work better done. In another" instance, an employee of the Council was supposed to be working on the roads, but didn't put in an hour on the roads. This sort of thing would never have occurred had there been an engineer to watch the stafl. He .himscll had had the unpleasantness of bringing the matter before the Council, and the man had been dismissed. But no, the Council persisted in running its affairs in an old-fashioned and old-womanish ■way. Tt was a downright insult to the engineering profession for members to stand up and say engineers were a lot "of fools, that they were no good, end that they could do no better than men who had not even had the to become successful farmers. Whilst it was clear that he had been premature in brining the motion forward, he honed it would have some effect m the evolution of road-making, and perhaps that which he and his seconder desired now would in the future be considered absolutely necessary. The motion was lost.