The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1874.

Dunstan Times, Issue 639, 17 July 1874, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1874.

Eteneaththe Rule of Mon. entirely just the PENIS mightier than the sword.

We have been privileged with the reading of a private letter, addressed to a gentleman in this town, 'wherein the writer asks the very pertinent, question, “ To whom are contractors for public works to look for payment 1” He then explains that certain road works in the neighborhood of Tinker’s Gully, constructed under authority of votes of the Provincial Council of the Session of 1873, and passed by the District En ginger some six months since, have not yet been paid for; and further, he says that the contractors are threatening the linker’s Progress Committee (who were instructed to get the work done) with legal proceedings, if they are not paid forthwith. The above, we regret to say, are not the only instances that have come to our knowledge where the contractors are kept trudging over the country, from pillar to post, from month’s end to month’s cud, in search of the man who is to give them the price of their hard earnings. We now allude to the contractoi’s of road works on the Alex- ' andra and Teviot Road and the Clyde j and Cromwell Road, who have com- j pletod their tasks in so satisfactory a j manner as to elicit higli enconiums j from the District Engineer, but as j yet have not recoiled their moneys, I though the work has been taken off I their hands. We can find no excuse I for the Government not fulfilling their part of the agreement, and can only characterise the delay as gross and culpable negligence, deserving of the severest censure. Every laborer is worthy of Ais hire; and we maintain that, immediately the last stone is laid, or the Government agent has issued his mandate that the work is satisfactorily peiformed, there and then should the money or its repieseutative a voucher—be handed over. By adopting such a course the men would have confidence, and plenty would at all times be found eager to undertake {any and every kind of work at a reasonable rate; whereas, if the|’system we complain of is perpetuated, few men will be found to engage the Government as their paymaster. Another phase of the subject is, perhaps, fraught with greater evils than the mere keeping men out of their just dues ; at any rato, it is one that affects the general public to a greater extent, not only in this district, but in every other, and therefore worth considering. It is this : Is the delay in paying for these contracts not a little piece of manipulating of the votes of the Provincial Counciul 1 It is to be borne in mind thal these over-due moneys wore votes of the Session of 1873, and from them not being paid during that year they lapse, and are made a charge against the fallowing year- Taking it for granted that such is the case, the work of oui Provincial Councillors, in so far as the allocation of the general revenue is concerned, is a sham am! a delusion. We shall be please;) ai being corrected if we are wrong in our assumption.