GERMAN TENDERS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 54, 1 September 1926, Page 8

GERMAN TENDERS

PUZZLING DISPARITY

OPINION OF POWEB BOABD MANAGEMENT. . '

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, Thia Day. The fact that a German firm, which was recently the lowest tenderer to the Auckland Electric Power Board for the supply of cable, should only six weeks later send in the highest tender for another contract has occasioned considerable speculation. The first time the German firm tendered it quoted £8000 as against the lowest British tender of £12,000, but it lost the contract because the Power Board gave effect to its policy of preference to British-made goods. On the second occasion the same German firm quoted £12,000 as against the lowest British tender of £8000. An opinion that gained some currency was that the Ger,mans on the first occasion were only trying to under-cut their "British competitors and the later quotation was nearer the rjal price. It was considered that £8000 would not cover the cost of manufacture, so the German quotatisn could only be in the nature of "a sprat to catch a mackerel."

A different view is held by Mr. B. H. Bartley, general manager of the Power Board. He considers that the first quotation was an error, and that the later figure is nearer the German idea of a margin of profit. "If the Germans had got the contract on the first occasion, I have little doubt that they would have withdrawn," he.said yesterday. "They would quickly find that their tender was a mistake."

Mr. Bartley said >that the board was being approached very freely, in fact, pestered, by German manufacturers and agonts with offers for the supply of electrical tools and equipment, and it was evident they were making, a bold bid for a place in the New Zealand market. There were even instances of British firms acting as agents for German goods. It could be readily understood that, if Germany could only break down the initial opposition, they would have a more or less free access to the Dominion. If a few contracts were given to German firms, they would pave the way for a complete entry to the local market. . - '

"As far as the ' Auckland Power Board is concerned," ho added, "they have come to the wrong people. "