HIGH SCHOOLS BOARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10416, 19 July 1895, Page 4

HIGH SCHOOLS BOARD

A special meeting of the Board of Governors of the High Schools was held yesterday afternoon, and attended by the Very Rev. Dean Fitchett (chairman), the Mayor (Mr H. S. Fish), Metsrs H. Clark, J. F. M. Fraser, and J. R. Sinclair.

The Chairman'explained that the meeting was a special one,, called at the request of certain members. At the last meeting the report ot a committee was adopted recommending that of a soni of £240, which bad accrued to the credit ot the Girls' Higb School from the source of stationery money, £150 bs spent in putting the building of the Girls' School in irood repair! and the board accepted the ten der of Mr Rosenbrock for certem repairs. The tenders rau in this order: Mr Lees, £71; Mr Gillies, £65Smith and Smith, £68; Mr Fogo, £55; Mr Rosenbrock, £43. There remained consequently about £100 to spend.

_ Mr Clark asked if the contract was advertised in the public papers. The Secretary (Mr C. Macandrew) said that by circular irom him applications were invited from the principal painters. Mr Clam said his only reaßon for wonder was that he had never heard of the man who was the lowest tenderer: being in the trade at

Tbe Chairman said the point was this : He got a letter from the major .vking him to goto the fchool grounds on Saturday last to consult about the remainder of tbe work. Mr Sinclair was, he believed, also asked to be present. He agreed with the mayor that it was necessary to paint the outer buildings, to paint all the windows round the school externally, and to repair the columns of the portico. The mayor thought the price would b^ about £70, and suggested that for this work they might, instead of calling ior public tenders, probably gefc a. tender from the person who was already on the ground. Tbe speaker agreed," provided the other members of the board agreed, and Mr Macandrew was to interrogate the other members of the board. Irrespective of this proposal, he agreed with the mayor that it was necessary to have the shelter shed painted by the men at present at work at the school, for ifc was necessary it should *be done before the girls returned, and he (the chairman) took the responsibility of authorising that part of the work.

A document, bearing the initials of-Messrs Sinclair and Fraser,, agreeing to the suggestion that a tender for the, extra painting should be obtained from Mr Rosenbrock. and a letter from Mr Fraser Withdrawing his acquiescence were read. ' 7" Mr Sinclair remarked that in the interval between -. gat'ticj; the 'initials of the membsn and getting Mr Praser's withdrawal of his approval Mr Macandrew had instructed the contractor to go ou with the work. Mc Fraser : That is not so. Mr Sinclair said it was so. He understood that a memorandum of instruction was given to the contractor after Mr Macandrew obtained the initials of tbe.mtmbers. The Secretary said: that was so. :..:■■■■■:.- Thei Chairjian remarked that the contractor had sent in an offer of"/£64.19i.- ~,. The Mayor said ii, appeared that Mr Macandrew on the initialling of the documeut by all the members of, the board ex;c»pt Mr Clark, notified the contractor in writing that his tender was accepted: Mr Clark said that for two reasons he did not see bis, way to agree with whafc bad been done. He thought : that tenders should havo been called for the extra work, and very especially did he think, even admitting that the work should be carried out, that the season ot the year was very unsuitable for anything of the sorb, ard therefore he believed it would be better to postpone air outside work until November, ; for everyone knew it was unwise to paint woodwork outside during ths winter months. ' ,

The Chairjian .observed that the board at its previous meeting seemed to expect the committee to go on. Mr FRASEit'desired to ask if the contractor's otter was accepted under instructions from any member of the board.

Secretary said he consulted Mr Fish on the matter, and was * advised by him to write to; tbe contr,icf.or.and,getthe work started, as it was necessary it should be started at once. ,".-^e MAY°"«.SMd the fact of the matter was that,the whole thing was left in the hands of the committee, and there was a tacit, if nofc expressed, understanding that'the committee would do the best they could up to £150. He tailed to see where anything wrong came in. •lhe man was on the job, and it was necewsry to get the work done at once if it was to be done at all. Another thing which actuated them was that the;money was a windfall, and i it was not spent now it might be absorbed in the maelstrom of High School finance, and there would be no opportunity of Laving tbe Work done another time. He had no hesitation in staking his professional reputation thafc the job was a very cheap,job indeed—fche men mighfc get wages out of, the work, and the bnard saved the difference between the workins men'a wages and the contractor's price, v The Chairman thought,'the,board was committed to the work.

Mr Eraser took grave exception to the action of the board on various grounds. It had departed from tbe ordinary rule of allowing the painting work to be done uhrlec ihe superintendence and direction of Mr Somerville, who never charged anything for his services, lnen he "thought a mistake was made in trespassing upon Mr Fish's.time in connection with tne matter, for the reason thafc Mr Fish was himself^in the trade, "'and although be was debarred.. from tendering it might place tenderers m an awkward position, as he would also, tho speaker supposed, have to pass the work and measure it up, and the board might thus be exposed through Mr Fish—for the board was identified "with Mr Fish in the action—to adverse comment. Then, the board was-a public body dispensing pnblic money He_ presumed the painting trade was not one whit more prosperous than any other trade in town, and he failed to see why the board adopted the expedient of inviting prices under the circumstances from various tradesmen He did not desire to cast the (.lightest imputation on Mr Puh—the board was responsible for what had been done, and it would be ungracious on his part were he at that sfcage to endeavour to cast odium on Mr Fish in auy shape ; but, speaking: with some hesitation, he thought he mighfc say the persons from'whom tenders were invited did not fully represent what might be called the respectable trade in town—he knew they did not,—and he noticed that one of these person's—he referred to Mr Rosenbrock—was, as Mr Fish knew, on more than one occasion referred to by Mr Fish's enemies as being connected directly and indirectly with Mr, Fish.,. With that he (Mr teaser) had nothing to do. He did not suppose however, that the gentleman occupied any prominent position in the trade, and ifc seemed to him unfortunate that while a' man occupying a less important position was asked to tender others occupying a more important position were not asked. He did not say there was anything sinister in the'fact. Then, when this gentleman waa doing a £43 contract, the boaid afc a very unusual period.of the year, undertook exterior painting to the^ amount of £65, and proceeded to give the work, without further competition, to the lowest tenderer for the other work; and so this gentleman got a £65 contract, at what was possibly a very fair price without any competition at all. He did not suggest that anything had been improperly done, but that was a sort of thing which exposed a public body tomost adverse comment The board, he thought, stood committed, and he would be loth to run the board into a possible action over the matter. The secretary was entirely blameiess. He (Mr Fraser) bad no doubt fchat his colleague from tbe primary board would agree with him fchat it was unfortunate that the board had deviated from its usual principle by not employing the architect it bad hitherto employed. Mr Sinclair said the board, as a matter of fact, a*ked Mr Fish to supervise the work knowing that be had the techoical knowledge ' MrCLARK supposed the board was committed to the work but ho thought it was somewhat unfortunate that that was so, because he knew there was considerable feeling outside chiefly because in thi ß case the board had departed from its usual practice. Mr Somerville bad had control of all the works for mwiy years past, and in tais case especially should the practice of the board have been adhered to, for the fact that Mr Fisb, who was a tradesman m the same line, was asked to examine the worlwas apt to cause ill-feeling and jealousy which might otherwise have been prevented Mr Sinclair said it was not exceptional to ask a member of the hoard to undertake the supervision ot duties, for nob two meaDingsprevious.y the board asked Mr Fish to rtk, L himself the trouble of inspecting othe0the ™ arrangements at the reclory. " ti T^C*™ 11™^* "marked that ha did notth.nkMrSum.rvnie walked to super nte° d certain plumbing at the rectory recently The Mayor said he looked on this emeute as peculiar. The statement had been «3» ti I Mr Rosenbrock was repute* to h„ H* with Mr Fish. Por t unTe 3 Ty; M b; Ro C°n u D h ec^ he once had been associated wi h Mr YUb because he learnt from Mr YUh I' . , *lsh > the rei-ult that he had tuS^ftfh^ excellent trade 3 mau.-(Laug* ter 7 Mr * aQ brock had bec-n an apprentice of hi a ?' d^T" ever an opportunity occurred of 2Q^"d turn to him, in common with his nthX? Cootl tices, the speaker never fai ed to t*V ?1 1" of it. Ho (the mayor) w!sa4;d%°"fcl2B specification and give au^thW ed/'"?. lnakc a of the work to & d one H« L to° 7 alne value of the work at Tom £ f tt**£%*™ the correctness of bis eUimSJ l i°°' '? d the fact tbafc when comp^itit t f <>W" hy the ceived the higmsS s * J^-- * aud this lowest. same £i 00 i "ish?u }v °V° he stated. He told thi 7 X^ lT the ioe that the price »£$ by tW *' the Wme was exceedingly low but *f",? Brer the tenderer " couM 1 he h«'.he^ he would earn wagci A, [,?•>, G W-" rlt aa asked the board tl assume' t£ 7^£

plicated law caso coming on w;hick ifc placed in 1 the hands of a legal gentleman. The board was | at the present time in the, fortunate position j o. having two legal gentlemen amongst its j members, and he- af-k»d whose advice would ba more eagerly asked during the progress of tbe case than that of these two legal gentlemen ? But it seemed that whafc was sauce for tho legal profession was not sauce for the painting trade. The remark that this was an unusual time of the yeir to do this' particular work was nofc worth the breath that ut ered it, for it was not based on fact. It was not the rule to choose winter time to do outside work, but every case must be judged on its merits, and the circum(.taucc:! of this case were peculiar for t~o reasons—that the buildings badly wanted painting aad that the girls wera away from school, and if the work was to be done it was necessary to get a portion done during .the absence ofthe girls. Tutu, with reference to the dreadful sin which tbe committee had committed in giviug the work to the man who had the 'present job, without competition, te declared, speaking as a tradesman, that it was the most common and ordinary thing to do. He asserted, moreover, that it would have been exceedingly mean on the part oi the board, particularly when it? attention was called to the fact that the man was doing the present job at a very low price, if it had gone by him and takes the work out of his hands. Another remark of Mr Fraser's to which' ho took grave exception was that the persons from whom tenders were received did not fully represent the respectable members of the trade. He took leave to say that the firms of Messrs Lees, Gillies, Fogo, and Smith and Smith did represent the respectability of the tra-,:e-(Mr Fraser : "Not wholly") -did represent the bona fides of the trade, aud did : represent the ability of the trade. Thea they cume to another phase of the ease. The chairman, jealous of She board's' honour, said he thought the work ought to be done in the way he (fche mayor) suggested, bufc decided to get the consent of the members of the board before he did anything further. The secretary obtained the signatures of Mr Sinclair and Mr Fraser, he had the speaker's, and he hsd- the permission of fche chairman. The only member whose concurrence the secretary had not gob was Mr Claik—one out of five. It Beemed to him that every step had been taken with the greatest care and caution, and he could not see what fault the beard had committed. 13e gave his reasons why he thought Mr Soroervillp'should' not have been employed. What he (the mayor) had done in the present caso had beim done by him out of the purest kindness to the board, ana he had given the boird his skilled, knowledge without a single farthing. That was the loug and short of it. Ihe circumstance had; however, come to his knowledge that one of. the* tenderers, Mr Gillies by-name—there-was-always jealousy of hi in as a tradesman and as a public man, for he ercelled in his trade and he excelled as a public man, and hence the small people of both classes were jealous of him,—direc ly he found Rosenbrock had got the tender, said to him, "Yes, Rosenbrock was Fish's apprentice 10 years ago ; ergo ,Fish has got the job." 'Accordingly Mr Glli'es went to the janitor, and asked if Mr Fish's foreman had not bfeeh up, measuring the work, and the jauitor said he had not; seen bim for the simple reason that he had nofc been there. To his mind the thing was absolutely contemptible. , He begged to aesure the br>aivi that everybhing was straight, and that it was getting its work done remarkably well and remarkably cheaply. ~'■■'-. i

There being no motion before the board, the matter then dropped. '