Hand v. Machine Broken Metal. 37 



colony was mainly indebted for the improvements by means 

 of which proper machine-broken metal was made obtainable 

 here. After stating how machine-broken metal had been 

 applied in making and mending Melbom^ne streets, he stated 

 that its chief superiority lay in the fact that it formed 

 almost immediately a hard, durable road of even surface, 

 and effected an immense saving of traction labour. More- 

 over, seeing that the leading modern authorities on roads 

 concurred in recommending the use of small metal — of 1 in. 

 gauge, for instance — it was only by mechanical means that 

 the material could be economically and properly produced. 

 Machine metal could be supplied at 7s. per yard, and also 

 gave a good top-dressing for footpaths at 5d. per square 

 yard. He deeply regretted to find so many blind to this 

 patent superiority, that city councillors, when before their 

 constitutents, were often made to pledge themselves in 

 favour of hand-broken metal, but he expressed a fervent 

 hope that this feeling would soon give way, and that the 

 degrading drudgery of breaking stones would be spared to 

 the next generation altogether. It was true that pro- 

 fessional opinion was to a certain extent divided on the 

 point ; but in this respect a rapid change was taking place, 

 and it would assuredly be much accelerated as the greater 

 merits of the machine-broken material became known. 



Mr. A. K. Smith concluded his paper by adducing opinions 

 in favour of machine-broken metal. First, those given by 

 various professional and other authorities before the Road 

 Maintenance Committee of the Cifcy Council in 1865 ; then 

 the opinions of Mr. John E.eilly and Mr. R. Adams, the past 

 and present city surveyors, who both avowed that they had 

 been converted by experience from the directly contrary 

 convictions which they had previously entertained ; and 

 lastly, those expressed by a great number of engineers 

 officially connected with various local governing bodies 

 throughout the country. Finally, he stated a series of 

 propositions, the effect of which was that, by the proper use 

 of stone-breaking machinery, roads might be made at one- 

 half their present cost. 



Mr. William Walker referred to several opinions of 

 French engineers against the use of machine-broken metal, 

 and contended that the sti-eets of Melbourne were tlie worst 

 he had ever seen. For proof of this he pointed to the 

 condition of Elizabeth -street after three days' rain, and said 

 tliat if that street were subjected to a tropical rain, it would 



