PRACTICAL AND OTHER ESTIMATES.

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

PRACTICAL AND OTHER ESTIMATES.

Ix reference to the County tenders commented upon in a previous article, we have stated that we were not permitted to publish the Engineer’s esti» mates, the main reason given for the fetmi beihg that it wottia not ba wiw

to divulge Captain Winter’s' estimates until the sureties had all signed the bonds. On the grounds of caution we admit this contention to have much weight, and thCouncil is to be commended for the zealous way in which they endeavor to protect the interests of the ratepayers, but we fear their cautiousness carries them beyond the mark and is calculated to react in an unexpected way. Again we are told it has always been the custom to reserve the Engineer’s estimates solely for the guidance of the Council, nor is it usual for them to be solicited for publication. The fact of their not being previously asked for only goes to prove that there was less interest taken in the matter, or else that our staff has become mo're active than in days past; at any rate it is in no way prejudicial now to such estimates being published at the earliest opportunity. The very reason urged for their being withheld is, we consider, the strongest one in favor of the earliest publication. No member of the Council, we are sure, would care to see any number, or even one person, victimised by becoming the surety for a contract or contracts which cannot possibly pay a fair profit, and therefore, especially in the case in question, where the offers to undertake works are ridiculous in comparison with the Engineer’s estimate, it is all the more necessary that they should not be allowed to go into a thing blindfold. It is all very well to say that it is the own concern to see that he is not giving his guarantee to an unprofitable transaction, but it is not to.be expected that sureties can always go minutely into these matters and it is to the interest of the Council to give them every facility. Even if the publication of the Engineer’s estimates had led to many of the sureties not signing, that is just what we should prefer rather than contractors, sureties, and laborers should be heavy losers, and the Council itself ultimately put to so much trouble and annoyance that day labor might be considered more satisfactory. We say candidly that we do not believe one of the successful tenderers can reap a fair profit from his contract, and that either tney or someone else will be sufferers in the end. No ratepayer can wish that this should be so, and if the publication of the Engineer’s estimates would avert it we assert that a public good would be achieved. In regard to one section an experienced man, and one who knows the particular work required to be done, has told us that with every facility, and which he knows the successful tenderer has not got, he would not undertake the contract at an advance of a hundred pounds, whilst some of the successful tenderers, on learning Captain Winter's estimates, nave considered themselves fortunate that their tenders were not accepted in some cases. Fortunately none of the contracts are for works of great magnitude, but such as they are we think there will be need for sympathy before it is all over.