HARBOUR BOARD TENDERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3763, 27 April 1926, Page 54

HARBOUR BOARD TENDERS.

A LENGTHY LIST. COMPLAINT BY MR RAMSAY. The sub committee appointed to consider tenders and quotations for mole reconstruction reported to the Harbour Board at its meeting on Friday, recommending the following tenders for acceptance:—looo tons Westport-Stockon coal, 38s per ton (£1900), John Mill and Co.; four Siddons platform weighing machines, £37 each (£148), Paterson and Barr; air compressor driven by internal combustion engine, £1239, c.i.f.e., Cory, Wright, and Salmon (Wellington); tenton steam crane (maker T. Smith and Sons), £1490, c.i.f.e., B. J. Dunsheath (Wellington); three-ton steam crane (maker T. Smith and Sons), £990, c.i.f.e., B. J. Dunsheath (Wellington); Ruston and Hornsby steam shovel, £2616, c.i.f.e., John Burns and Co. (Christchurch); 20 10-ton tipping wagons (Heakston tip trucks), £123 each (£2460), c.i.f.e., John Burns and Co. (Christchurch): nine tons wrought iron for bolts, £l4 16s 7d per ton (£133). Gollin and Co. (Dunedin); Nobel’s explosive (quarry monobel), four tons approximate. £3 6s 6d per 501 b case (£596 approx.). Dalgety and Co. (Dunedin); crosscut swing saw saw and internal combustion engine), £232, Vickers Ltd. (Wellington); internal combustion engine and generator. £l7O, Vickers Ltd. (Wellington). The total amonnt involved in the acceptance of all these tenders is £11,974. Mr Wilkinson submitted the tenders and moved that they lie approved. He said the committee had gone very carefully into the tenders. A very elaborate chart had been drawn up by the engineer for the guidance of the committee. Mr Cable seconded the motion. He explained that four of the nir compressors had been considered quite suitable, but the one they had accepted, although it was higher in price than the other three, was considered under the circumstances to be the one they should purchase. The same thing applied in this report in favour of the 10-ton crane and thf 3-ton crane. The speaker also explained what had guided the committee in connection with their other recommendations. They had had several prices for the tipping trucks, tint they had accented the English truck, although it was the higher price, in preference to two of the Bo l ~san-mnnufac-tured trucks tendered for. (Mr Campbell: Hear, hear.) Some discussion took place on the difference in prices between the British and Belgian-manufactured trucks, and it was pointed out that with the higher duty to be paid on the Belgian trucks the difference in the prices was not as great as it at first seemed. Mr Tv. S. Ramsay said he did not know whether the board was right in calling for open tenders. If they were going to accept only English-made goods they should Bay so. lie wanted British “tuff just as much as anybody else, but the board ought to lie fair. The people who supplied the tenders for the foreign-made goods were put to considerable expense in cablegrams, etc., and they apparently had no chance of their tenders being accepted. Mr Wilkinson’s motion that the tenders ns submitted be adopted was carried.