View report page

6
tinuance of the system of contracts. The enquiry, however, led to
the revision of, and some important alterations in the form of contract
adopted, more especially the division of the district into three subdistricts
or divisions, which admits of greater competition between
Contractors, and extending the charge for carriage, at per furlong, to
all distances of half-a-mile and upwards, all shorter distances being
charged as hire at per day, instead of allowing the Contractor to
charge on whichever system was the most profitable, as had been
the case before. The Report of the Committee on the subject is
given in the Appendix.
The Cartage in the two divisions of Lewisham was let to Mr.
Colson at l¾d. per yard per furlong; and the hire of a horse and
cart at 9s. per day, and 6s. for every additional horse. The Cartage
of Penge was let on the same terms to Messrs. Martin and Wright.
These terms were a reduction of ¼d. per yard per furlong on the
contract of the previous year (1856), and a reduction of 1s. per day
for the hire of every horse and cart.
The Road Scrapings for the year commencing 25th March, 1857,
were sold for £28 9s. 6d., and for the present year a slight increase
upon the previous amount has been obtained by a more judicious
division of the roads, and including some which have hitherto been
omitted. The detailed particulars are given in the Appendix.
The Board have not definitively undertaken the repair of any
roads (under the 106th section of the Act), during the present year,
although they have expressed their readiness to do so, in two
instances, on certain conditions. In one case, they were applied to
to undertake the Park Road, and the West Road, Dartmouth Park ;
they at once refused the application as to the latter, but resolved
(January, 1857), to undertake the former on proper gullies being
made to it, and about 300 yards of gravel supplied for its repair.
This condition was not, however, complied with, but the application
was renewed in the following September, when still greater outlay
for the repair of the road was required; this was refused, and the
application was ultimately withdrawn, with an intimation that the
road would be closed against the public. The other case was the
Avenue Road, Lewisham, which they resolved to undertake the repair
of, on payment by the owners of £10 to put it in repair.
An application was also made to the Board to undertake the
following roads in Penge:—the Maple Road, Oakfield Road, Station
Road, Jasamine Grove, Hawthorne Grove, Woodbine Grove, and
Laurel Grove; but the Maple Road was the only one tliey
entertained any idea of undertaking, and their Surveyor (Mr.
Treverton), having estimated the cost of putting that road in
proper repair at £410, the Board declined to take any.
Great difficulty is found in dealing with private roads such as
those above-mentioned, and the roads in the West Kent Park,