Turanganui Bridge.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 480, 15 July 1890, Page 3

Turanganui Bridge.

[to the editor.] Sib,—l trust the Borough Council will abstain from Galling for tenders to repair the swing of the Turanganui bridge, until an expert has reported and advised as to the best method of permanently adjusting it. Now, as Mr C. T. O’Cnnnor, who is an authority on wooden bridges, is likely to visit Gisborne shortly, I suggest that the Borough Council will request tbe Government to allow him to report. It is high time that local bodies abandoned the tinkering policy that has, after enormous expenditure, left the County with crushing rates, and without either a harbor, roads, or bridges in the least degree commensurate with what might have been obtained had any engineering knowledge and precaution been practised. I will give one example of the tinkering policy adopted on road repairs. At the beginning of tbe present winter a contract for about £6O was let by the County Council to clear away slips, etc., on a portion of the Ormond-Waiapu road. The work was done and paid for, and affected the road inversely to what was aimed at; in fact, the money was thrown away, and the road made impassable. To cheek tbe slipping down of thousands of tons of earth, manuka stakes were driven in and backed with fascines, the absurdity of which is on a par with Mrs Partington’s attempt to stay the flow of the Atlantic Ocean with a broom.—l am, etc., Settles.