The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, December 6, 1888. “HARD TIMES.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 231, 6 December 1888, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, December 6, 1888. “HARD TIMES.”

Be just and fear not£ Let all the ends thou aim’at at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth’s.

The complete list of County tenders which we published on Tuesday last is enough to perplex an ordinary mind. We are not permitted to publish the County Engineer’s estimates, but we understand that the total was more than double the amount of the successful tenders. Allowing for all differences which may fairly be reckoned on by reason of one tenderer having greater facilities than another, or being possessed of advantages which the others do not possess, the disparity in the tenders is so wide as to be a complete puzzle, as we have said, to the ordinary mind. For some of the sections, the highest tender is more than four times as much as the lowest. One man, for instance, undertakes to do for £23 the same work which another asks X"i39 tor! The next lowest tenderer for that section put in for three times £23. Can anyone explain how it is possible for such a great difference to be made in work of this class ? Certainly the successful tender seems a most ridiculous one. In section I, the lowest tender is £B4, and the highest £1 67 ; section 2, lowest £49, highest /199 ; section 4. lowest £47, highest £1 72 ; section 6, lowest £43, highest £125 ; section 7, Z 45 and /"log ; section 10, Z 39 and /106; section 13, /30 and £93 ; section 14, Z 49 and £ll5 ; section 15, and £77 ; section 17, £23 and /139 We have it on fairly good authority that some of these contracts, to be properly carried out, would not pry a Chinaman to undertake, and no more convincing proof of the prevalent state of things could be found than in this keen tendering. In one or two cases, the Councillors were so certain that the work could not be carried out at the tender price, that they decided to give the work to others whose prices seemed more in accord with reason. With a good winter, we believe that it will be difficult to make some of the contracts pay a fair profit: with a bad winter, the result must be the reverse of satisfactory.