The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1909. A CHANGE OF FRONT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2676, 4 December 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4,1909. A CHANGE OF FRONT.

At last Council meeting a feature of the .proceedings was a remarkable change of front on the part of the Mayor over the loan proposals. Prior to that occasion Hi s Worship had allowed it to be understood that the carrying of the loan proposals, so far as roads were concerned, would involve the adoption of Mr. Marchant’s suggestions. These meant the formation of the bulk of our roads with Ivaitaratahi shingle, a topping of Gentle Annie metal to be provided in streets where heavy traffic takes place. Attention was drawn in these columns to the grave doubts which exist as to the fitness of river gravel for the .purpose, and in the Council Chambers a minority of the members spent many hours in a futile endeavor to persuade their fellow Councillors to reconsider the question, but all to no purpose. All this time His Worship gave not the slightest indicatfon that there was any possibility of the Marchant-Jarrett scheme being departed from. Then on AVednesday night he surprised the whole Council, or at any rate the opposition, by stating that the carrying of the loan proposals would not necessarily bind the Council to use river shingle in the construction of its roads. All that would be definitely fixed would be that certain sums would have to be spent on the roads and streets as set forth in the loan schedule. This, of course, places the i matter in a much more satisfactory light than before, and if the Mayor had given this assurance earlier he might have avoided a good deal of adverse criticism. This admission, however, does not alter the fact that the Council as at present constituted, if given the opportunity, would almost certainly go through with the present foolish scheme for constructing roads from river shingle, but it leaves a ray of hope that sounder methods might, after all, be adopted. The fact that so much should have to be learnt at the eleventh hour throws an interesting light on the manner in which the loan proposals have been put before the Council.