The Contract System.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 278, 26 March 1889, Page 3

The Contract System.

[tO THE IDITOB.] Sin,—ln view of the opinion expressed by you some time back that public bodies should exercise some discretion in the letting of contracts, and not, as they very often do, accept those tenders which are manifestly the result Of miscalculation or which are so absurdly low as to result in a heavy loss to the contactors, the following clipping from a Home paper to hand by the last mail may net be uninteresting. It has also some' slight bearing on the question of applying the contract system to the remainder of the breakwater:—lt we are to be instructed by the evidence before the Sweating Committee and by other revelations elsewhere, we most come to the Conclusion that the deterioration of wages has much to do with the physical degradation M the people. The right thing to do is to uphold the rate of wages for skilled artisans, for the wages of labour will fallow the same rate as a matter of course. If anyone will note the amounts of the tenders given by firms of more or less eminence it is impossible not to bo struck with the different prices at which a dozen firms suggest that they will take the work. With regard to all firms and companics which tender, there is one observation common to them all. They will have to pay the market price far iron, timber, bricks, and stone ; they will have to pay the same freights . pafi railway pates for conveyance of the raw materials to the scene of work. One firm may be more favourably situated than another wit* respect to one article, but not as to all. . Nevcrtheleaa it will be found that there an differences of thousands of pounds between the tenders. We hare known a difference of £20,000 between the highest and the lowest tenders, and only recently in a contract involving not quite £6,000 there was a difference . of £2,000 between the highest and the lowest tenders. Now we take it that this means that the parties who tender the high prices are firms who pay reasonably good wages to their mon, and that the public Boards are tempted to accept the lowest tender without reflecting that it is entirely made up in some instances in consequence of the Ipw rate of Wage paid by ths successful contractor. Now If there any class of work which ought to be Well paid 'for, and in which wages should be maintained, it is public work. If all our public bodies were to set the example of requiring a statement of wages usually paid by the parties tendering to be sent in with the tenders, we should be able to detect the reason why there io ouch a difference under the present system. The mania for cheap production Should not be allowed to extend to the permanent works required by public bodies, Il it is allowed to do so, we must expect bad work as the result of the 11 cheap and nasty ’ theory which now finds so much favour.—l am, etc., Workman.