COUNTY COUNCIL WORKS— CONTRACTS.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2848, 1 April 1878, Page 3

COUNTY COUNCIL WORKS— CONTRACTS.

(To tlio Editor of the Evening Star.) S IB ,_I was glad to see tbat at the meeting held at the Thames on Monday night Mr Cornea did not flinch to speck of the way County works are carried oat; and I am surprised to see thnt in spite of repeated notices in the Press of the way the money is squandered and contracts slummed over the public seem so disinclined to credit it. But it is a notorious fact, and I for one can bear witness to it, that such evasion of specifications has been done and is being done in this Ohinemuri riding. As an instance, I may mention that the diversion of the new road on the Mnckaytswn and Owharoa road through the bush was never felled to the entire width of a, chain except in a few instances, the specified full ""chain being entirely ignored, and also the half chain of clearine specified has never been carried out completely, and yet this line of road has been passed and money paid to t-fae contractors. The rule seems to be with the Encineer that because contractors take contracts at a low rate they should be let off easy. But this instance is noting to what is going on now in the contracts let for cutting the Ohinemuri and Kalikati road, where every possible moans are being taken to evade the completion of contracts according to specifications. In no instance have tho terms been carried out. The specified ten feet in the solid has never been done, and in no single instance has the specified slope of six inches in a foot been carried out. The 10 feet of a width is made, but what with? With ilones built up, and logs, and loose earth, etc. In one case I noticed that the cutting only extended 18 inches into the iclid, and the rest of the 10 feet being 11 made up " with a frame work of logs, with branches of trees laid over them to keep the soil from falling through. I say, if these contracts are passed, the public confidence in the County Council will be lost, and all faith in its engineer gone; and I reiterate that if our members for this riding stand by and allow sucii doings to pass, the sooner they give up representing us the better. We were told the County system was to do wonders for us ; but what has it done ? It has done nothing with the large rating raised, except to levy heavy rates, and to give big salaries to its head, and to its chief officers. I think we would be far better off if we were to I3turn to the Boad Board system, which, though slow, does the work cheaply and well, without sounding a trumpet before them, as the County Council delights to do, which duty is well done by its excellent trumpeter the Chairman. Let not the public be hoodwinked by Mr Brodie's account of the way the works are carried out, and who has repeatedly said that all Maori day labor was to be discontinued, whereas Natives are still at 7s a day on the road below Hikntaia. All that I hare stated, all that has been done, and ii being done now, points the finger 10 separation, for we can never hare what we want done unless we get men in office who thoroughly understand our wants. For it appears to bo the special business of the County Chairman to cram his way of doing things down our throats, or how our rates should be best squandered, while he gently lulls the public to sleep, so that it should not see how the money is being wasted without the least adequate return. I, for one, am resolved not to. stand by and meekly knuckle down to such proceedings on the part of the County. Begging you will excuse trespassing, I am, etc., Hamltjt. Ohinemuri, March 28th, 1878.