SUPPLY OF CHARITABLE RATIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3688, 28 July 1886, Page 3

SUPPLY OF CHARITABLE RATIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIM Alt O HERALD. Sib, — -Re the Dunedin incident of giving to the unfortunate poor of that place 81b flour instead of 121 b, etc., etc. In the price list of tenderer, as published m the Times, flour -which I find costs 12s per 1001 bis supplied at Bs, arrowroot costing 6d at 4d, syrup 3d at 2d, and so on. Surely the oommittee of any publio institution must, as a rule, contain sufficient business men to know that it is impossible for anyone to be a successful tenderer for years at such a scale, unless ho made a serious loss, or else went m for (to put it mildly) something similar to the present exposures. If the board are sufficiently satisfied with the status of tenderer to decido upon playing with the fire, they should (and the pub 10 have a right to expect that tlioy should) insist upon a rigid system of checking all ■upplies. , It is folly to ask if tliia h»s been done jn

tho paßt ; is it too much to nsk that this course should be adopted m the future ? If the commissioners of our splendid public institutions would only insist upon their employees only doing what every prudent housewife does when Bhe files the butcher's ticket for her joint of meat after she has carefully weighed it, all would bo well, and tho public need not trouble their heads about the consciences of committee men or contractors 5 neither would the half meal doled out to the widow's children or the family of the unemployed labourer stand bo much chance of being but a few degrees this aide of starvation's limits. I am &.C, Joseph Hcmb.