TENDERS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 114, 21 August 1877, Page 2

TENDERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE AKAROA MAIL. Sir, —A letter appears ■in your issue, of the 17th instant, signed Everall & Gunning, in which they request an explanation as to why the Okain's Bay Road Board accepted a tender from IV' Pawson, for certain works in Little Akaloa, in preference to theirs and others, in which they were interested. In tlie absence of the Chairman, I will briefly furnish them through your columns' with the explanation required. Mr Pawson's tender was accepted, as being 3s 6d per. yard for shingling, not ss, as stated in their letter, which made his the cheapest, and further, Everall and Gunnings tenders were nearly a week too late in being sent in. Besides, they .did not comply with the requirements of the specification in any way whatever ; they sent no cash deposit, neither did they propose any sureties, or mention when they would commence the work, or when finish ; in fact it was a mass of loop-holes, which would have led to no end of litigation, arid seemed to have been carefully worded, so as to obtain the money and only do half the work required. These remarks apply to the other two tenders, which evidently werefiom the same parties, only intended to serve as dummys, a system, which, I am sorry to see, is getting very much in vogue with a certain class of men calling I themselves contractors. The Board there- | fore, accepted Mr. Pawson's tender, as, besides being the lowest, they considered he was the person most likely to carry out the work honestly, judging by their experience of all his other works done for the Board, I believe,* he is Mr. Barker's Son-in-law. • but surely this does not prevent him from tendering iv an honest, upright manner, for any public works, even although his father-in-law is a chairman of the Road Board, or even the County Councd. In justice to Mr Barker, I may state that Tie never interfered with the tenders in any way whatever, but left the matter entirely with the other members of the Board, and if any person wishes to see how to drive a wheelbarrow through a set of specifications, they are welcome to see both tenders and specification on application at the Road Board Office, Okain's Bay.—Yours, dec. DAVID WRIGHT. August 20, 1877.

ST. PETER'S, V':, 7 ■ ■ ! . . _ ■» ■7' "' , :.'•;),'■: '■' ' ''' TO THE EDITOR OF THE MAIL.' " Sir.—ln last Tuesday's Mail vtjie're appeared an extract from the New -Zealand Church News, having reference to the Rev. P. C. Anderson, who is shortly expected, among us at Akaroa. So far as trie extract is concerned all is . well, it 'bpin'g partly what was written by the Rev. gentleman's own pen; and had your printer's devil stopped here, there would not baye been that tampering with an unlcnovm public character in the minds of your readers which, I fear, at present Not the extract, Sir, but the paragraph, for which your office is re— sponsible, has done this evil. If your reporter understood the matter to which the Rev. gentleman refers as an " unpleasant duty in September last," the paragraph referred to has proved to be a mischievous pervcrsioivof the-truth to those of your readers who have spoken to me on the matter; if he understood it not, it is a most unjustifiable liberty wittingly taken, the very voice of an evil spirit, calculated to do an injury to a minister of the gospel,- and his work among us, which his term of locum tenens may hardly efface. Your readers, panic-stricken by your alarm, not knowing the cause, may like briefly to hear " the unpleasant duty " for which the Rev. P. C. Anderson was so " abused "in public print. Some time ago a Mr Robinson came to Napier to assist the Rev. Mr Townsend, and being a very popular preacher, carried the people with him in every way. He gave great cause in his ministerial work for the interference of Mr Townsend, with Jwhom the said Mr Anderson fully agreed, and whose side he espoused as being the right and true one. Both Mr. Townsend and Mr Anderson were looked upon by the people as hiuderderers of what pleased them, and of course both came in for their share of public opposition and misrepresentation. This is the unpleasant duty Mr Anderson refers to, and for which he was abused in public print. The end" of all, however, proved who were wise, the rev. gentlemen or the people. Mr Robinson was found out to have misrepresented himself, and of course to have sinfully gulled the people, who, before hearing of his imposture, had made him the handsome present of about 200 guineas, as no doubt he thought it prudent to return home. Now, Sir, most of your readers do not know this, and I can assure you they have simply applied the warning note of your paragraph to his private character, or to his mode of conducting service in church, or to something unknown, which they are to regard with suspicion and dislike before they have at all' seen the gentleman. What, I ask you, in the name of justice and truthfwhat in the name of all that's dear to a man—his character— can be the meaning or intention to an unwitting public of such a paragraph as this. "If this be the Mr Anderson alluded to above," that is, the one intending to take Mr Cooper's place, *' we would remind the Church of England officials of tho old proverb, * a stitch in time saves nine.'" . The prejudice excited in the minds of your readers by this paragraph exceeds any conception you can form of the matter. May I therefore'; Sir, to do a good man the justice of removing as tar as possible this' unjustifiable aspersion of his blameless character; and when ;yonr reporter again makes a suggestiou for the public guodj may we hope that it. will be one of intelligence, justice, aed truth, mingled with charity. D. 0. HAMPTON. [Mr Hampton's letter is somewhat intemperate. However, the explanation of the . " unpleasant duty " which he gives,, and which has been elicited by the paragraph- in question, is in itself an all sufficient proof of the utility and efficacy of our remarks. A little calm reflection would have shown the Rev. gentleman that a *'mischievous -perversion of the truth" cannot exist where nothing is asserted ; and that the means we adopted to obtain information 011 this matter were perfectly justifiable, and, in reality, of benefit to Mr Anderson in clearing up what seemed doubtful. We utterly deny having either directly or indirectly aspersed that gentleman's character, or said what was untrue, unjust, or uncharitable. — Ed. A. M.]