DRAINAGE BOARD'S AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13845, 3 September 1908, Page 5

DRAINAGE BOARD'S AFFAIRS.

ADMINISTRATION " ATTACKED.

INQUIRY .AND EXONERATION.

[BY TEIJiC-RAI'JI.— OWN CORBKSI'ONDKNT.]

Dun kdin*, Wednesday. Serious chargcs'of maladministration wove recently preferred against the. Dunediu Drainage Board by the Evening Star in its editorial columns, and a demand was made for a strict inquiry into'the conduct of the Board's affairs. It was allaged that the Board imposed conditions, " which were surely, never .•equalled all the world over in point of leniency to its contractors." For instance, progress payment* were made fortnightly tip to 90 per cenr. of the value of the work performed, and with the : retention money reduced to an almost irreducible minimum, and important work entrusted ic men who, practically without capital, had little 01 nothing tc lose in case things went wrong, the Board bad, the slenderest of holds on their contractors. Men who formerly worked in the Drainage Board's trenches undei the day labour system had tendered successfully under the easy conditions. It was but natural that In a race of contractors suddenly brought ink? being and fostered by such an unhealthy and unnatural environment,, there should ,be some who got into difficulties. Then following on this, it was stated that some of Mies* contractors were financed by a local trading firm (the Commercial Property Company), t\v, of whose directors tire members of the Drainage Board. 5 /■■;: The inquiry asked for was readily held, and " special committee of the Board was 'set up to investigate the charges made. Exhaustive evidence was forthcoming *Jid the editor of the Evening Star personally took a leading par+ in the inquiry.* The special committee submitted its finding at last night's meeting of the Board. It found that the interests of the Board in the matter of contracts had been amply protected. In regard to the charge that contractors had been financed by a trading concern, two of the directors of which were members of the Board, the committee found a.- fol-lows:—-"In our opinion Mr. Cohen completely failed to establish his assertion. It has been proved beyond doubt that the Commercial Property Company has not for at least "four years past directly financed ny of the Board's contractors. It was suggested that- this had been done indirectly, but not only was this not proved, but we are satisfied that the suggestion is without foundation." Mr. Marlow, chairman of the special committee, said » great deal of ground had been gone over, but nothing was. established to show that anything wac wrong with the administration. The report was. then adopted unanimously. • '.The' Evening Star to-night comments on the finding, ami says it is precisely what might have been expected from a committee of four members of the Drainage Board. The report it describes as discreetly brief, the discretion consisting in the omission of an analysis of the evidence on which that conclusion was based, and it maintains that the committee was more easily satisfied than most people in finding that the suggestion of indirect financing was without foundation. , • .