CONTRACTS AND CONTRACTORS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 156, 15 January 1878, Page 2

CONTRACTS AND CONTRACTORS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE AKAROA MAIL. ""- ] SiKy—The Little River electors seem tos| me as if they had had some fun at their meeting for the election of new- membed to the Road Board. The, Board must be ft smart body, to allow a contractor to humbug them, slum their work, and bully them into the bargain. I believe-what .Mr. Wilson, their clerk says is true, and that is, that the contractors are ignorant of the value of the work they tender for. Any person reading the Akaroa Mail and comparing the prices of different, contractors, will see at once that the men hajp very little judgment of tbe work they tender for. In your last issue I see Vangioni's tender for the Onuku road waß £2 2s per chain, and £1 for each culvert; Woodill and Co.'s £3 12a per chain, an£ £8 per culvert. Do these figures appear as if these parties have studied the amount of work to be done, the number of yards of stuff to be shifted, and how much a yard it is worth to shift ? Perhaps the one that has got the job will find that be has burnt his fingers, and to make it p&y he will have to do the work "anyhow, consequently the settlers will find' H the long-looked-for good fifteen foot nma has' been ropde but 12 feet wide, even that propped up by sham stone walls;' sk thdb, when .the winter arrives with its/scnr. westers,'one-half of these walls and crowsj_eßtfoundations will be sure to shift. \ I also see that Woodill-,»frnd Co. haye 1 ' asked the Board for compensation, as tlkjjr had under-estimated work they.had contracted to do. I, for one, think that the Board are quite right in not allowing thero/ anything. The Board should see that thiswork is carried out accordi*)*- to specification, and not slummed oyerYas too maryi jobs have been on the Peowisi-la. M I hear that the Board* h_jve an engineeSrl •to look after their work wMe,it is in gress. 'I think they sho.ildlbok'after m I and see he does npV'.get Iris' moneyl?" I nothing, any more' than A. I The meiabers of the*B to m

that ffibyhave nothing more "expected to let the contracts and pas Sftjt thet__.when they are finished. In my opinion, Mr Editor, each one of them--houlgUake a look over all contracts while they fat.. in progress; by so doing they wonlji gain knowledge, and be able to judgg for themselves as to whether the contfaptors were doing justice to the public"." The ratepayers would then have more confidence in the Board. Apologising for taking up so much of youi? Bpace, I am, &c, A RATEPAYER.