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So far as we are able to gather, the object the Acting Surveyor General wishes to gain is to distribute the weight of the Tramway over a large area, as in many places the streets are formed of made land and therefore liable to sink.
We are at one with him that this object is necessary, but we submit that our method of construction, by which we distribute the weight longitudinally over the length of the rail, is sufficient without distributing the weight laterally over the whole section of the street.
The maximum weight of the load of a full car per square foot would not exceed 555 lbs. on the stringer submitted by us, whilst the safe load that can be placed on soft clay is given by good authorities as being from 1 to 2 tons.
The disadvantages to the Company and the owners of gas-pipes, water-mains, sewers, of placing a solid bed of concrete laterally across the principal thoroughfare are so manifest that it is unnecessary to more than mention it, whilst the longitudinal blocks suggested by us leave the streets easy to be opened by the owners above referred to.
Whilst it is to the interest of the Company, who by clause 14 of the proposed Bill have to maintain the roads over which the Tramway runs, to in the first instance construct a firm and substantial road bed, it is not to its advantage, and we cannot believe it can be the wish of His Excellency that money or material should unnecessarily be wasted.
As we have unfortunately failed in inducing the Acting