D.—2

15

reference thereto, I have to inform you that I have not yet been able to recover their value, notwithstanding repeated applications. In the case of the Lancaster Wagon Company, however, a sum of £514, payable to them under their contract (Memorandum 8/84 of 13th February 1884), has been detained by me ; and, in the case of the Staffordshire Wheel and Axle Company, there is £691 still due to them on account of contracts for the supply of wheels and axles for the Wellington and Manawatu Railway, and this amount has also been detained. I have, &c, The Hon. the Minister for Public Works, Wellington. F. D. Bell. Enclosures in No. 25. Extract from Cablegram received 12th January, 1885. ***** Have you recovered value condemned axles. The Agent-General, London. R. Stout.

Extract from Cablegram despatched Y4dli January, 1885. * * * * Condemned axles, value not recovered. Detaining balances ; shall probably have to bring action. The Premier, New Zealand. F. D. Bell.

No. 26. The General Manager of Railways to the Hon. the Minister for Public Works. The making of wheels and axles can now be done in the Colony, and it might be as well to apprise the Agent-General that, in consequence of their failures, and the indifferent work and material found in the wagon and carriage ironwork recently imported, it has been decided to import no more from England. The Hon. the Minister for Public Works. J. P. Maxwell, 20/3/85.

No. 27. The Hon. Minister for Public Works to the Agent-General. Public Works Office, Wellington, N.Z., 21st March, 1885. .Sir, — I have now the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th January, on the subject of the condemned axles, and have only now to express a hope that Messrs Mackrell & Co. may find a way of inducing the manufacturers to pay the claim you have made against them. The great loss the Government has been put to in connection with these wheels and axles (for we find a large number of the wheels are also defective) with wagon ironwork, and lastly, in connection with the locomotives, has compelled me to take into the most serious consideration, the question of inspection in England, and I shall address you by a subsequent mail on this subject. In the meantime, I am taking steps to so increase our appliances, as to obviate the necessity of ordering from England many articles, such as those above referred to, as independently of the encouragement we are thereby giving to local industries, we prefer to know that we have good articles, and at the same time also to know what we have to pay for them. I shall only now add, that I have personally witnessed the testing of many of the wheels and axles, and I have no hesitation in saying, that if there was any inspection at all, it must have been of the most perfunctory nature, and worse than useless, as when these wheels and axles first arrived, believing that they had been inspected, we commenced to use them, and it is little short of a miracle that no serious accident has happened thereby. In some instances the first blow given in process of testing, caused the axle to break in three pieces, the turned bearings actually dropping ofi' from the jar of the blow given in the centre. You will be glad to hear that we are now forging in the Colony, from scrap-iron, wheels and axles, both by contract, and in the Government workshops, with complete success, and shall therefore order no more of them from England. I have, &c, The Agent-General, London. Edward Richardson.

No. 28. Memorandum by the General Manager of Railways to the Hon. the Minister for Public Works. Defective Axles. Since expressing an opinion on this matter, on the 29th January last, I have had a further lot of axles, of different makers, selected, and the tests, according to the specification, carefully recorded and tabulated. The results are indicated in the attached returns. The two series of tests were carried out under separate observers. These experiments confirm the opinion that the whole of the importations referred to must be condemned. The Hoii. the Minister for Public Works. J. P. Maxwell. 1/5/85.