SUPERVISION OF PUBLIC WORKS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3369, 22 November 1872, Page 3

SUPERVISION OF PUBLIC WORKS.

TO THE EDITOR. •Sin—rl liave noticed during tbe pa>it few years that contractors who liave been engaged in carrying out publio works liave always and in every case obtained undue advantages over the labouring classes, principally through the leniency of the superintending engineers, and general lax management of the Public Works Department. Contractors are bound to a certaiu stipulated time to finish tlieir contracts. It may be three or six months, according to tlie magnitude of the work. I have known instances where the work was only commenced a little before the time had expired for the completion of the contract, and, in point of fact, the work in question, which should have been finished in three months, took somewhere about nine months to complete. Now, what follows from this sort of thing ? Why, that contractors manage to get work done at their own own prices. They can afford to wait. They know the Government won't push them for time, and the result is that they hang back until somo poor, miserable, hard ap men come along, who will tackle work at any price for a time ; and in this way road contracts are kept lingering on for an indefinite period, and are never finished in due or proper season. If contractors think proper to take work at ridiculously low prices, that is no reason why the public should be inconvenienced ancl humbugged by tho slow and dilatory manner iv which they choose to carry out their present contracts — notwithstanding that there is a great deal of work in progress throughout the Province at the present time. Still the working classes do not derive the advantage that might be expected to ensue from the extra demand for their labour; and for the reason I have quoted—namely, the undue leniency of Oovernment officials towards contractors. You may be astonished when I tell you that there are various kinds of work performed in tbis Province at lower prices than similar work is done for in the old country—notably stone-breaking, for instance, as low as Is (3d to Is lOd per.yard being given ; 2s per yard is considered a tip top price. It may be said that men need not accept such low prices if they don't like. I am well aware of that; but poor men have no alternative ; they must either accept the price offered, or go idle and starve. Now these things could not happen if Government acted impartially and enforced the penalties against contractors for non-comple-tion of work within the stipulated time. Then employers would be obliged to posh on their works vigorously, and there would ioe a healthy competition for workmen, wi»o would obtain a fair and remnnerative price for their work, and not be as they are now, totally at the mercy of nose-grinding contractors. Thia is a matter of very considerable importance to the working classes, and I trust the Government will take note of it All that working men desire is a fair field and no favour, neither one way nor the other. — I am, &c.. F. C.