The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1883. AN ARITHMETICAL ACT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1335, 24 March 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1883. AN ARITHMETICAL ACT.

The Chairman of the Southern County complained a week ago that Councillors had not made themselves familiar with the mysteries of the new local Government acts. If Councillors are hazy on these questions, what is the condition of ordinary mortals'! We fear it must be one of intense darkness! We will give an illustration to show the tortuous ways that have to be threaded in working out the Roads and Bridges Construction measure, We will take as an example the case of a district road which is "on the schedule" after passing over the special mysteries involved in getting it on! Assuming that the road in question will take £BOO to construct where, is the money to come from? The Government find three-fourths or £6OO, and tho County tho other quarter, or .£2OO. The Government, however, discover that it has not sufficient nionoy to satisfy all claims brought against it under the Act, and has made a three.eighths grant to tho roads which have been scheduled, surveyed, and approved. To find the amount available tor the road in question from tho treasury, we have to take three-eights of threefourths of £BOO. This may seem a little complicated to the uninitiated, and calculated to puzzle country financiers. Sweet simplicity is evidently not the characteristic of Major Atkinson's measure, but still there is money to be made out of it, and settlers have only to grind a little at compound fractions to find out how the thing is to be done. One complication involves another, and it is evident that wheit three-eighths of a road has to he made on paper, p, corresponding section of it has to be constructed with the pick and shovel. We shall perhaps require, in time, decimal, road men, It is obvious, too, that the country willsoonbe dotted over with' three-eighth patches in all directions. We sincerely trust to live to see the three-eighths roadslengthen, or broaden put, as the case may be, into fiveeighths, six-eighths, seven-eighths, and eight-eighths roads, but we are afraid that the .Roads and Bridges Construction Act will not survive till the final stage is reached. We do not, however, undervalue the practical utility of the: measure. It enables'us in the , Wairarapa to make through roads that. are of the first importance to outlying districts, and which could not be conconstructed without its aid,