New Chathams Tender Sought

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32350, 16 July 1970, Page 14

New Chathams Tender Sought

Chatham Islands contractors will ask the county council there to recall tenders for the construction of 24 miles of new road and the improvement of 25 miles of existing road on the islands. In a radio-telephone call last evening, Mr D. J. Puck, seeretary of the Chatham Islands Earthmovers’ Association and

also secretary of the fishermen’s association there, said that local contractors felt they had been denied the right to tender for the job because all relevant information had been held in Christchurch. It was announced last week that the Chatham Island County Council had decided to let the contract to Mr R. Mahan, at Geraldine. “All the relevant information on the job was held by Mr Royds (the consulting engineer to the council) in

Christchurch. The local office of the council was not aware of the conditions of the contract and couldn’t give any information to the local contractors. The only way we could have found out the necessary data o-n which to base a tender would have been to return to New Zealand to get it” said Mr Puck.

The contractors who came from New Zealand to view the job had their fares paid by the Chathams council he said.

“Mr Royds did not make it known to the New Zealand Road Contractors’ Association as such that the job was available but only to the Christchurch branch of the association.

“Of course, when the contract figures leaked out here, and when It became known that the weekly food allowance for the New Zealand contractors for each man exceeded the present average weekly wage in the islands, considerable feeling was aroused," said Mr Puck. “I have the minutes of that council meeting in front of me and it is interesting to see that towards the end of them Mr Royds is quoted as saying he could see no reason why island contractors should not have the opportunity to tender for the job. It was he who said that, provided the basic time (that is the time in which the job has to be done) could be extended, tenders should be re-called. “We’ve spoken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and they have said there is no reason not to allow the time to be extended.

“We hope the tenders will be re-called. We are not asking for any specific inter-

est in our case, just the right to tender for the job. “We’re going to stand firm on this one. The fishing has fairly slumped and farming here has just about had it—this is about our only lifeline,” Mr Puck said.