A gracious reply was immediately received to the effect that H. H . the Lieut. Governor was prepared unhesitatingly to accept and commend the public spirited offer, provided the Chief Engineer in the D. P. W. was satisfied that the Bridge was not likely to do mischief to the country up stream, by damming up flood water. If his opinion on this point was satisfactory, the Public Works would have no further concern with the undertaking and it might be executed as I and the donor thought best. The proposed design was at once forwarded to the Executive Engineer, but he, in despite of the express instructions of Government to the contrary, persisted in calling for minute information on a variety of matters entirely unconnected with the question of water way, suggesting the entertainment of a professional Surveyor, for whose pay a deposit should be made, and writing generally in such an unpleasant style that at last, on June 1, I again addressed the Government direct, representing that when a spontaneous offer had been made of a munificent gift, it was at least uncourteous, if not absolutely insulting to throw doubt on the good faith of the donor and to demand a guarantee of the immediate fulfilment of his promise; that collection of materials was progressing and that the work would certainly be started directly sanction was accorded. This, however, was not communicated for another 6 months, when at last on the 9 January 1882, Col. Peile, the Chief Engineer, grudgingly admitted that "he thought the 207 superficial feet proposed would suffice to pass the river without inconveniently obstructing it;" but even so he could not refrain from concluding with a paragraph of gross impertinence to myself. Now that the work is completed, the officers of the Department criticise the design for its extravagant water way. The excess however was intentional. If the slightest question could have been raised as to sufficiency on this point, the commencement of the work would have been indefinitely postponed and finally dropped altogether, after I had left the district. All that the Chief Engineer could bring himself to say regarding the proposed water way, though he must have been aware that it was larger than circumstances required, was that he did not think there would be any inconvenient obstruction.
In such a quiet and prosperous part of the country, where there is no great injustice to correct, or practical grievance to remedy, it seems the height of unwisdom to be for ever introducing new laws and systems of
