38 Harid v. Machine Broken Metal. 



become impassable. He also denied that the pulverised stone 

 acted as a good binder. As for the degradation of hand 

 stone-breaking, he complained that machinery was driving 

 the poor from the labour market. 



Mr. A. K. Smith desired to observe that he had advanced 

 no general opinion on the excellence of the Melbourne 

 streets. As to the opinion of French engineers, he had 

 quoted several in favour of the system he advocated. 



Mr. William Walker reiterated his opinions. 



Mr. R. Adams (city surveyor) declared that the idea of the 

 pulverised metal being turned into sludge by rain was 

 simply absurd. His opinion had for many years been 

 decidedly against machine-broken metal, and it was derived 

 from observation of several hundreds of thousands of yards 

 of metal broken for railway purposes, but that had now 

 given way to a larger experience of the machine stuff. It 

 had also several ether advantages not yet mentioned, such 

 as superior cleanHness, and the rapidity with which a road 

 might be formed thereby. 



Mr. BosiSTO had been forced by his municipal duties to 

 pay attention to the subject, and he fully endorsed Mr. 

 Smith's statement, that machine-broken metal would make 

 rapidly a smooth road, which was also cheaper than one of 

 hand-broken metal ; but he doubted its durability. This 

 last opinion was derived from experience gathered in 

 Richmond. He still advocated the use of machine-broken 

 metal for light traffic. 



Mr. W. Crooke argued that the want of a good foundation 

 had proved most disastrous to many roads. 



Mr. Christie admitted the cheapness of machine metal, 

 but denied that it had the proper cubical form, by which 

 alone it could be made to bind. 



Mr. A. K. Smith urged that even hand-broken metal was 

 not perfectly cubical. He pointed to specimens lying on 

 the table to show how perfectly solid machine-broken metal 

 would bind, and reminded his hearers that experience of 

 roads of machine metal extended over no more than four 

 years. 



