UPPER AORERE CONTRACTS.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VI, Issue 155, 18 May 1899, Page 4

UPPER AORERE CONTRACTS.

(to the editor.)

Sir, —In your issue of Hth inst. appears a letter over the signature of F. G. Mace. It re-minds one of the tale ot'the man who went to a phrenologist to get his " btuiips" felt, and when he waß told that he had corabativeness very. ,> strong told the phrenologist that it was a d n lie, and he would knock him down. To show that he is not vindictive, Mr Mace wastes a column of your paper with silly personal abuse of mysejf —apparently with the object of drawing off attention from his own conduct.

Divested of the characteristic language of Mr Mace's literary style, the charges he makes against are the.-e : (Ist) That I went 40 miles (10 of them on my own feet) to see a contract that was in dispute, to enable me to form an opinion on the merits oi the matter ; (2nd) That I hac 1 the courage of my opinion, and did not vote the same way as the other councillors who bad not taken the trouble to see it; (3rd) That I proposed that Mr Sadd (who has the final passing of the contracts) should be requested to point out definitely what was required to he done to finish the contract. I have always been in favor of having conti acts honestly completed according to tlie spirit of the specifications, but when an Inspector is appointed who has the power of altering any part of the work it is not always just or right to keep the contractors to the exact lettkk of it. For, it an inspector is little-minded enough, he can harass contractors very much, and he can do this under the guise "of a person of sufficient practical knowledge, moral courage, and firmness to insist on specifications being complied with." to quote from Mr Mace. The whole of Mr Mace's "storm in a teapot" is that I did not pander to his overwhelming conceit by asking him to come with me. I had neither the time nor the inclination to trot round alter Mr Mace.

From Mr Mace's report to the Council, and from what I saw on the road, I consider that an injustice is being done, and that it was in the interests ot the district that Mr Sadd should point out definitely what was required, and thai we should then make the contractors do it. With regard to what Mr Mace calls " back-stair business" I must admit that Irs knowledge is greatly superior to mine. He writes like a person who has great experience in that way of business; whereas I do not know what it means. Is it anything to do with a second-hand sawmill ? i'he Shareholders in the Col.iu o .vood

Groldtields Co. have rea on 10 be proud of a manager who can write such a gentlemanly letter. It will perhaps remind the English ones of a part of their own country —I am not sure, but I think it is a place called Billingsgate, where such eloquence is cultivated. Anyway it shows their manager to possess a highly refined mind with a slight poetic ttndenc). I remember a fable, Mr Editor—though I cannot See why thinking of Mr Mace should remind me of it. can you? Anyway it ran something like this: An ass fium i a lion's skin, and, getting into it, ■trutted about to the great terror of the inhabitants. But, having more conceit than brains, he soon began to think he was a lio.i, and started to write letters to the papers—no, I mean he began to bray ; thereupon the inhabitants saw that it was not a lion but only a silly ass.—l aui, .etc., A. J. Washlourn. Parapara, May loth, 1899.