JUST DOUBLE THE COST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22546, 13 April 1935, Page 19

JUST DOUBLE THE COST

TO THE EDITOR g IR _In v iew of the fact that the opinion is expressed —very freely and volubly expressed—by certain sections of the Labour Party that the City Council should have had the work that is required in connection with the Deep Creek water scheme carried out by day labour, the following extract from a book written on Australia by Mr J. H. Curie, who\ is termed "an observant globe-trotter, may prove of timely interest: — When Australian Labour is organised and backed up by Parliament dreadful things happen. That railway crossing the desert to Westralia is 1100 miles long. The country is dead flat, with no bridges; in one stretch of 400 miles, if I remember aright, there is not even a culvert. Begun in the cheap days before the war, the line, I have been often told, would have been completed for £3OOO a mile; contractors even wanted to build it for £3,000.000. But Labour was hungry. Parliament was complacent. So day labour it .was, punctuated with trouble and strikes, and the railway lost the country over £6,000,000. . . ." No one wants to see the contractors for sections of work lose money, owing to the low prices at which they secured the tenders, and the Engineering Department of the council should take steps to see that only what may be termed "fair priced" tenders are accepted. It would be a grave reflection on' the City Council if it were to* attempt to get work done cheaply owing to the present pconomic pressure I would not, tor my part, suggest that the City Council would attempt to do anything of the sort. Still, 'he Engineering Department should keep a watchful eye on the position and make sure that what may be termed "imposeible" tenders are not accepted. Given that protection, it seems to me that the fairest "deal" for the people who have to pay the cost is by the contract system. Of course the question is who should receive the " fairest" deal —the people who pay or the workers who receive the pay —may come up. If what occurred on the railway construction in Australia is taken as a guide, it would seem that the people who paid had to pay "through the nose." as the 6aying goes'. —I am, etc., Onlooker.