RE REFUGE COMPETITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7885, 2 March 1887, Page 3

RE REFUGE COMPETITION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —After .many weeks of anxious wait* ing on the part of the other competitors, Mr. Wade has at length sent in to the Hospital Board the working plans for the proposed new Refuge for final approval. And what do we find ? Just what has been predicted ever since the selection was made, namely, that he has made material alterations, effecting a curtailment of 56,500 cubic feet: of the space originally provided, and shown on the drawings submitted in the competi* tion. And in the face of this most bare-, faced attempt to foist on the Board this modified edition of his original design, they do not seem to have had the courage or desire to finally and at once reject them—as right-; thinking men, actuated by a desire to keep, faith with the other competitors, would have done— refer them back to Mr. Wade,) with the remark that they must cot form with the conditions. If it iB the desire of. the Board that Mr. Wade should have the work, why did they call for competition ana entail an unnecessary expense on the 18 other competitors? 1 would ask, is it fair to those other competitors to refer the plans back at all after their author has exposed, by this attempt at modification, his disbelief, in his own ability to get the building erected within the stipulated limit. The action of the Board in this matter is very much open to est ion, since it tends to show, that it is their desire,' to pitchfork Mr. W. in somehow or other, > honestly if possible (that is by affording him every facility and opportunity to alter and re-alter), but otherwise if neosssary. I) they desire to carry competition out to 8 successful issue, I would say adhere rigidly to the conditions issued by themselves in this matter, and not allow suoh unwarrantable shuffling on the part of any competitor, and at onoe mark their sense of disapproval of Mr. Wade's conduct by altogether reject' ins; his design, and calling up the next. Apologising for so far trespassing on yom space. —I am, &c., A Competitor. Auckland, March 1, 1887*