With regard to these committee meetings it is necessary that each should have some distinguishing title descriptive of the class of work over which it has jurisdiction, and in selecting names for them the following list may be of some service:—Finance Committee, General Purposes Committee, Law and Parliamentary Committee, Surveyor’s Committee, Land and Estates Committee, Rates and Taxes Committee, Streets Committee, Lighting and Cleansing Committee, Navigation of Port Committee, Public Grounds Committee, Sanitary Committee, Drainage and Sewerage Committee, Markets Committee, Properties for Sale Committee, Works Committee, Water Committee, Gas Committee, Watch Committee, Health Committee, Library Museum and Arts Committee, Baths Committee, Parks, Gardens, and Improvement Committee, Streets Improvement Committee, etc. etc.
The surveyor should always endeavour to be punctual in his attendance at the council meetings and those of the committees, as to be late is always looked upon with disfavour. His reports should as much as possible be in writing, so that there should be no misunderstanding as to what his advice is on any subject. To save trouble and expense it is well that all drawings of new schemes should be first submitted to a committee in pencil, as they are frequently much altered; this is very vexing if they have been neatly and highly finished. It must not be forgotten that the gentlemen who form municipal bodies give their time gratuitously, and everything should be done to save it as much as possible. It is an excellent plan and a great convenience, if a surveyor will have a series of named and numbered pigeon holes in his office corresponding to his committees, in which to place all papers, drawings, correspondence etc., which he intends to bring up to the next meeting of a committee; thus saving himself flurry at the last moment before the meeting, in endeavouring to find the papers he wants. With his varied duties, correspondence, interviews, meetings, inspections, investigations, reports, drawings, and calculations, the motto of a surveyor’s office should be “method.”
[6] For full particulars and explanations of the various Highway Acts see ‘The Powers and Duties of Surveyors of Highways and of other Authorities with regard to the Management of the Public Highways,’ by Alex. Glen, M.A., etc.
CHAPTER IV.
TRAFFIC.
Before a surveyor can decide upon the best material with which the streets of his town shall be paved, it will be well to consider the question of the class of traffic they will have to bear.
It must be remembered that three distinct interests have to be considered in dealing with this question, viz. (1.) The rate-payers, upon whom the cost of construction and maintenance of streets falls. (2.) The owners and employers of horses and vehicles who principally use the streets; and (3.) The inhabitants of the adjoining premises, who would be annoyed if the material selected were unduly noisy or dirty. In addition to these considerations, much depends upon local circumstances; the class of trade upon which the welfare of a town is dependent must not be lost sight of. A pavement suitable for a busy, pushing manufacturing city may not be suitable for a quiet agricultural or cathedral town, or for a town which is used as a health resort. Again, the question of the most adaptable materials must be considered, and the climate and physical character of a town should enter largely also into this question.
To condense the requirements of a good roadway into as small a compass as possible, the following may be given as some of its principal requisites:—
(1.) It must not be extravagantly costly in its first construction.