A PAYING GOVERNMENT.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 135, 5 November 1874, Page 2

A PAYING GOVERNMENT.

To the Editor of the Globe. Sir,—l observed in your paper the other evening a letter signed by “One of Five Hundred,” and I was very much pleased to think that notice had been taken of the manner in which people working under the Provincial Government are paid. Look, sir, how the Road Board officials, and those who work for the District Road Boards are paid! They are not kept, week after week, month after month, before the vouchers are passed. We must have sadly too much machinery for the working of our Provincial Government organs, or sadly too little. There is a Provincial Government at work, but what are they at? Is their work not a simple farce of a useless and injudicious expenditure. In the letter of your subscriber (“ Five Hundred ”) he calls attention to the fact of his claim not being paid. Now, sir, I wish to call your attention, and the attention of the public, to the fact that when a contractor, who has been working under the Government, and taking contracts for hundreds of pounds, is obliged, according to the rules at present existing, to wait for upwards of a month before receiving payment for the work he has done. Well, sir, suppose after the contractor has done the work, it is reported to the clerk of the works when finished, then it is reported to the Engineer and Engineer’s office. After that vouchers are made out, and entered in two books, and from that laboratory it is sent to the Great Secretary of Public Works. There sir, we find that the voucher is handed over to the Under Secretary for Public Works. Then it is turned over to Mr Turner “The Under Under Secretary,” and pushed through a lot of other books. Then, after that, it is handed over to Mr Under Secretary Williams, who conveys it into another set of books ; and then, after being confided to a lot of clerks, secretaries, and messengers, it is handed on a Special Tray to the Great Secretary for Public Works. After that, sir, the voucher is handed to a gentleman who we may style (although he does not deserve the term of Lord Dundreary), he is in the Provincial Secretary office, however. Then the voucher is passed over to Mr Blakiston, who is, I understand, assistant Provincial Secretary, and after he has seen it, it is repassed to the Provincial Secretary. After Mr Blakiston and the Provincial Secretary has done with it, it is put before the Superintendent, and from the Superintendent it is placed before the auditor. And after that, another lot of books have to be filled up. Then, from the auditor, these vouchers have to be passed to the Under Provincial Secretary, where another lot of books have to be manipulated on. Then back they have to go, sir, to the Provincial Secretary. He has to pass them, and after that, they are sent back to the Treasury, where they are paid. It often takes a month after the contractors work is finished before they get their pay. Why is this ? The auditor very often sends back accounts on account of informality Whose fault is it ? Many times when a contractor who has done his work has gone to the buildings to get paid for it he has been refused payment on the ground that the account was not passed. In fact they had to shepherd the document relating to the payment from one office to another. If the arrangement between the Provincial Government are to be carried on as at present, I do not see my way to uphold the Provincial system or carry out the views under which your paper has been conducted. At all times I shall be most happy to see the principles bf Provincialism in their integrity, and if you would do me t the favor of replying to me at Blrnheim, 1 shall take care that every information shall be properly supplied by Yours, &c., CONTRACTOR.