The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1909 THE METAL SUPPLY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2637, 20 October 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1909 THE METAL SUPPLY.

A point in regard to the supply of metal which has been recommended to the Borough Council for adoption by Mr J. G. Jarrett has reference to the cost of Gentle Annie metal. Mr Jarrett recommends that a plant to cost £I9OO shall be purchased by the Council and installed at the quarry. He claims that the rock can then be quarried for 2s 7d per cubic yard. The estimate of requirements upon which the Council is basing its proposals at the present time assumes that for three years 8539 yards of metal will be required per annum and the- Mayor states that subsequently 500 yards per annum will suffice. This gives as the total requirements for 10 years 12,039 yards/ and at 2s 7d per yard this quantity will cost the Borough the sum of £1555. Add to this the outlay on plant £I9OO and a total cost is given of £3455. But the Council can at the present time, without purchasing any quarrying plant, get its metal from Patutahi quarry at 4s lOd per yard, which, for 12,039 yards, figures out at £2909 8s 9d or £545 less than.would he spent at Gentle Annie. Of course’, the Gentle Annie scheme must be credited with whatever was left of the crushing and gravitation plant at the end of ten years, but it is exceeding’y unlikely that this ■would be worth a penny more than the £545 just mentioned. In any case, as Mr. Jarrett lias apparently made no provision for interest on capital and depreciation of plant in his estimate o 1 2s 7d for quarrying, it would be obviously inconsistent to credit his scheme v ith such of the plant as *1 rvived th ; ten years’ wear and tear. The position, therefore, resolves itself into this: That whereas the Council requiring 12,000 yards of metal in ten years can get it from Patutahi for £2909, Mr. Jarrett recommends that it should spend £3-155 in getting the same amount from Gentle Annie quarry. Mr. Jarrett has made Other recommendations with which we will deal subsequent’!, but it should be emphasised that in the. present instance we have utilised the visiting engineer’s own estimates, which in our opinion are by no means unimpeachable. We do not believe for a moment that metal can he quarried and placed on the road at Gentle Annie for anything like 2s 7d per yard, as stated by Mr. Jarrett. Any excess over that amount makes his scheme all the more untenable.