Be PRINTING BRUCE ROLL.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3101, 22 September 1899, Page 4

Be PRINTING BRUCE ROLL.

To thb Editor. Sib,—lt is very interesting to read in your leader of the 15th iust., how caretul you have been to hide your complicity. Ib must have taken a lot of trouble and anxiety to scrape up sufficient material to make things appear "AH above board." I would like, Sir, with your permission, to give my side of the question. In the first place, I can scarcely blame the Registrar of Electors; he being a new hand at the business may have acted in ignorance of his proper duty, or I doubt if he would have told me that "he received instructions to wait on Bbucb Hebald and therefore it left him no option." Be that as it may_ fully three weeks before tbe circulars were issued I gave him notice that I was prepared to tender for printing Bruce roll. My office and plant were being put in readiness and I was already transacting business. The most peculiar part of the affair is, that on applying to the registrar ou July 21st, h© told me he had received no instructions. In your leader you state that you received circular with tender form attached, "from the Registrar of Electors " on July 18, and signed tender on July 25. There is a screw loose here somewhere. lam not intimately acquainted with the Premier or the Colonial Secretary, pei haps in the present instance it would have been to my advantage had such been the case. Of this I am perfectly sure—that I have been deprived, unjustly, of my right to tender for printing the Bruce roll. This is another instance of the dirty way matters are worked at present, aud undoubtedly point to intrigue and favoritism. This affair of mine is but a trifle in its wa}*, bub it is quite sufficient to convince me that an unwholesome state of affairs exist, and the sooner a change is made and the Government pige&n holes are dusted out the better for New Zealand. - I am &c., Thos. Allchin. [A cheap ad. is what our correspoii'lent wants rather than the truth. His statements are absolutely incorrect, ani he palpably contradicts himself in his alleged facts. We challenge him to produce evidence in our next issue that he did any printing work prior to 31st July —Ed. B.H.]