Page:Ashburton•Scotter•1972.pdf/138
Ashburton
economizing councils was the unkempt state of the streets. Instead of broken metal, which would gradually work down into a firm surface, the engineer was ordered to spread shingle because it was cheaper. Even after 1900, boulders ‘as big as a pineapple’ made some streets dangerous to cyclists, and at that time everyone cycled who could. On all but the best of surfaces they were forced ‘to bike with eyes glued to the ground’, picking their way between the heaps of loose stones. Conditions were sometimes worse for pedestrians and those arriving in gigs and other vehicles. In 1892 it was said:
During last week’s weather the condition of some of the streets would have been a disgrace to a bush township. In the business streets the mud at the sides has been almost bottomless, and passengers have been unable to proceed from their vehicles to the side paths without getting ankle-deep in mud, it being impossible except in a very few places to drive close up to the channel or kerb. Cass Street . . . has been a veritable Slough of Despond . . . the footpaths have been as bad as the roadways, or worse. This is not as it should be in a prosperous town. It may be said that a few dry days would make everything right, but what is now mud would then be dust, and one of these evils is as bad as the other.[1]
Regularly in season the works gang made hay in back streets, or ploughed off the grass or (sometimes) gorse. Until 1897 footpaths were asphalted for half their width and only then when ratepayers petitioned and agreed to pay a share of the cost. Indeed this remained the general practice except in the business area for forty years longer. Pleas were made in the council chamber and elsewhere that all the gutters should be concreted so that the water flowing down them could more effectively remove ‘the Cologneish stinks’.[2]
Twice the council reduced its staff rather than raise the rates. In 1888, councillors decided that borough administration could be done as cheaply as that of the surrounding road districts which employed one man as both clerk and overseer. Charles Braddell, who had been clerk for the ten years of the borough’s existence, was therefore appointed to the combined positions at a slightly increased salary (£200). He left the outside supervision to the foreman, expecting to engage C. E. Fooks for professional services. The latter, however, refused to act except by appointment of the council. So Braddell, after some six weeks of frustration, tried to