ON CONTRACTS.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 154, 23 June 1891, Page 2

ON CONTRACTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir, — We , read your short article •re public works, with interest, and feel sure that the Wanganui r Education Board must know that there is something: strange in the fact that there were no tenders lodged for the school buildings named. The architect makes what he .only thinks is a true valuation, and the tenders being in cases too high, they ar« rejected. The builders to make good work and pay <. fair wages, must have a fair price for their work. A straight for.ward builder does not think the game worth the candle. Appareutly the work is expected to be done at a low figure and if- any untoward circumstances take place, say a smoky chimney, and though the work is done as per plan and specifioa tion, the architect refuses to pass the work. * As to the Feilding Borough Ooun "cil, re letting work for bridge work, we say the best way to , do is to have the work rightly valued before calling tenders and afterwards let the contract to the one who submits the fairest estimate to a practised mind. As the system is now, the work is undervalued (we are referring to the last work when there was onlj one tender)- and when tenders ' are opened of course they are found to be higher than the valuation, and without taking into consideration the loss of the valuable time to the contractors, 'they are rejected, which we reckon is not fair. — We are, &c, on behalf of contractors. Htjbner Bros. P. Pope. Wm. Heald.