To the Editor of the Suit,—As the subject of the Bridge over the Soochow Oreck has again come up for discussion, 1 think it only time that, apart from prejudice, we should review the course of affairs, So many mistakes have been made, that it seems difficult to know where to begin.
First, however, I think that even the gators ut the attack on the old Bridge Company will acknowledge that the attempt to force the sale was a mistake on two grounds, Ist, as stated by Sir Edmund Hornby, it has lad more or less the effect of casting suspicion on a document solemnly drawn up and signed by the authorities of the ere and conceding, as was acknowledged at the Ratepayers' Meeting, certain rights which there is every reason to believe were within the power of the granter, and which, at all events, the course of affairs showed plainly it would be well for the Municipal Council clearly to possess. It is also the fact that the form the opposition took paralysed the operations of the Company, and prevented the completion of " bridge two years.ago, leaving us in our present lurch.
Secondly, the affair was a mistake financially, of which there.is even less doubt than the first, Taking the figures put down in your article of this morning, the community is saddled with an extra debt of Tls. 3,300 per annum, which it is not in a position to pay, and to raise which it feels itself compelled to resort to a tax on locomotion gaits as objectionable as the oda cash charged: for crossing the old bridge. These figures leave out of question the present financial condition of the Council, mainly brought about by the expenditure on that most useless structure the so-called "Free Ferry."
Thirdly, asit theinconveniencesuifered by the community in being saddled with debt and having intercommunication with Hong-Kew so seriously interfered with as it is now, were not enough, we have the further mistake, to use the mildest term, of getting another Wills' Bridge, with all the defects of the old structure, to replace at a considerable expense to the community the iron bridge intended and partially erected by the Bridge Company. The new structure will, with its planked roadway, be inconvenient for traffic across it; will interfere with the free passage of the stream by the nearness of the supports; and, judging from what wean see of its design, be no better that what we had ten years ago. Perhaps it is not known to many of your readers that the original Wills' Bridge was built of Malaya wood, the material which we now learn is as durable as iron;" its life was, I believe, some fifteen years, but long ere its flimsy structure was replaced by the nearly equally decrepit erection recently known as the Soochow Bridge, it had, under the name of the "Bridge of Sighs," become an object of public scorn, I am no favoured of monopolies. I believe that in the long run it is best that communication should be free, but I also hold that there are seasons and ways more practically suited to gain the others. 'The season was bad, as is by the present state of Municipal finance; the manner was equally mistaken, as Sir Hornby showed at the last ratepayers' meeting, and as we ourselves experience by the present breakdown of communication between the Settlements, Not a Monorousr.
To the Editor of the Sin,—Without stopping to ask how a deficit of Tls. 15,000 taels in the municipal accounts can have been caused by the construction of the Free Ferry Bridge which cost Tls. 9,000 and which it is proposed to Pay for by loan—Monopol assertion that the original wish to say a word in reply to "Not a
Wills' Bridge was built of Malaya wood. If this were the case, I should say your correspondent would have done better to state the fact before the construc of the present bridge, of the same material, had commenced. And I should have been very much astonished that no one person of those concerned was aware of the fact. But my own information differs materially from '*Not a Monopolist's." 1 am told that only the rows of piles nearest the land, in the old bridge, were Malava—no Malaya of sufficient length being at hand for those in the stream. The latter were chiefly of pine, old masts é&c., and Chinese yew too was used, People were not so Particular in those days, and admitted Various sorts of timber. 'The upper timbers were yew, and the planking was pin 'These facts, which I have on good evi dence, materially alter your correspondent startling statement that the original Wills' bridge was built of Malaya wood. How much Malaya entered into it Ihave already shown; and I will further add, for the satii yn of your correspondent and the community, that_when the old bridge was condemned, the Malaya piles were sound, and now constitute a sound and perfect piece of bunding in Hongkew.
Yours truly,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.