The Kaiteratahi Bridge.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 412, 4 February 1890, Page 3

The Kaiteratahi Bridge.

|TO THE XDITOB.) Sib,—A majority of the property holders having consented to tax themselves, for the purpose of erecting a bridge at Kaiteratahi, I, a mi.c.b. of considerable experience, advise the council, or whatever local body controls the expenditure, to call for tenders for designs, fixing the site, survey, boring, and other necessary details for the construction of a bridge of the magnitude required for a torrem, river such as the Waipaoa. I do not know who is responsible for the estimated cos’, but it is absurdly inadequate. Moreover there is no suitable site near the present road, therefore money will have to be expended in purchasing land to give access to and from the bridge. It is only n itural to suppose that our only Engineer has been consulted in the matter. I must candidly admit that great weight attaches to the opinion of our only Engineer, who has, in the roads of Cook County, built up such a splendid and cheap monument to perpetuate his fame and glory. But I, having assumed the mantel of those inspired spirits who so truthfully prophesied the failure of the harbor, am disinclined to entirely depend on the opinion of one expert, be he ever so eminent, where the forces of nature have to be conciliated and controlled, “for the plans of men and M.I e x. oft gang astray.” You know, sir, that our worthy Mayor will say the public are fool ish to listen to the vaporings of anonymous and irresponsible writers But every one is not so delightfully candid as he. for even euclid cannot take the credit of having worked out that pleasant problem the puna asiinorum which, like Junius’ letters, ia so tantalizingly involved iu mystery, that it even pusales our only Engineer to say who is worthy of the laurel crown. I know that as a K.t.c.a. I will be accused cf profee. sional jealousy. But to those who voted for the bridge, I warn them, that unless the greatest care and skill is used in design, choice of site, and construction, that having oast their bread upon the waters, after many days they will gather the crumbs on the Waikanae and neighboring beaches —I am, Ao.