TOPICS OF THE DAY.
WE are indebted to George W. Aldridge, chairman of the executive board of Rochester, N. Y., for a copy of the report of the board for the year ending April 5, 1886. This board has charge of the city’s water-works, fire and highway departments, as well as of street improvements. The report of the chief engineer of the water-works, besides much other interesting information, contains valuable tabulated statistics of the consumption of water in the principal cities and towns of the United States possessing water supply systems, as well as the water rates levied by each on dwellings, business and manufacturing establishments, etc.
HOME time ago the government wharf at Fort Wayne, Detroit, would have been entirely destroyed by fire but for the prompt action of Colonel Poe of the engineer corps, in charge of the fort, who employed a tug boat to extinguish the flames. For this service the colonel paid the owner of the boat $46, rendering a bill for the amount to the government. The treasury department has just disallowed this bill on the ground that the disbursement was unauthorized by law, in that advertisement was not first made for competitive bids for the service. Custodians of government property will do well to bear this incident in mind, and remember that any attempt to save it in case of fire must be at their own expense and risk.
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