ALLEGATIONS OF "SLUMMING"

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1217, 28 August 1911, Page 3

ALLEGATIONS OF "SLUMMING"

e A PETITION TO PARLIAMENT. (By Telegraph—Special Correspondent.) Auckland, August 21. A statement in support of the petition presented to Parliament last Friday by Mr. Massey, M.P., alleging that the work of the Public Works Department in Auckland is not efficiently carried out was made to a reporter last night,by Mr. Jaincs B. Hill, lato foreman in the employ of the Department. Mr. Hill said he was foreman for three years and eight months. On one occasion at the Newton police station he refused to take varnish and turps because the material was not up to tlhe standard ordered. At the constables' cottage at the corner of Nugent Street and Boston Road, where he was working, ho liad to send scrim back as not being up to specifications. As regards tho "slumming" of work at the Nugent Street job, the work was specified to have four coats of paint, and some of it re-, caivcd two coats, and other parts received three coats, and tho scrim that was actually put up at tile finish in three of tho rooms was perished. At the Farnell Post Office lie was told by the overseer to paint over loose plaster walls which should have been pulled down. These walls, lie said, stand to-day to bsar him witness. Mr. Hill also showed to the reporter a copy of his letter of resignation in which he stated: "1 herewith tender my resignation. I will not 'slum' tho work."

In ths petition referred to in the above message, the petitioners state that they are,, or liavo been, in the employ of tho Public Works Department in the Auckland District. .They state that the work is not efficiently carricd out, that the inspection is unsatisfactory, cud work is handed over without being properly completed. '.['hey instance (1) Boston Road police station, where they state that tihe scrim used was so inferior that it would not stand stretching, and that the kitchen and out houses were insufficiently painted, and tho roof not at all; (2) Government House, Auckland; where paper of several different shades had to be used in passages, while the doors were not properly prepared for repainting, with the consequence that 'the paint chips or peels olf; (3) tile Departmental Buildings in Customs Street and Albert Street, which were so badly finished that the flooring had to be taken up, and the joints were found to have roMctl through, ctc., within tv:o years cf the completion of tho building. Thoy also mention the Parnell post oliicc, Pukekc.ho pest oflice, and tho Mercer post office and cottage. Much unnecessary expense, they state, is thus caused, and t.he odium is cast upon the workers. They, therefore, pray for an inquiry.