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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5238, 7 January 1878, Page 2

The Waterworks contract committee has not yet completed its labors. Mr. Marchant’s examination re “ extras ” occupied the whole of Saturday’s sitting. Among the witnesses yet to be examined are Air. Blackett, Air. Hutchison, and the Corporation foremen at the waterworks. Mr. Carruthers, it is understood, will be asked to give evidence as to the conditions, generally observed with regard to extras, and upon other matters. It will in all probability be the close of the week before the committee have finished the investigation. The enquiry has turned but to be highly necessary, and we are glad to see that the committee evince an earnest desire to get at the root of the gross carelessness which has been characteristic of everything connected with the contract. At the present stage of the proceedings we do not wish to make any remarks which might prejudice any parties in the eyes of the public; nevertheless we cannot refrain from stating that the facta already disclosed show that almost every provision which should protect the ratepayers have been entirely ignored, and that the Municipal Corporations Act, the Waterworks Act, and the conditions of the contract, as tar as the payment of money was concerned, might as well not have been in existence for all. the attention that has been paid to them either by the City Council or the Corporation officials. The existence of such a state of things as has been brought to light is both a discredit and a danger to the city of Wellington. A gentleman remarked to us on Saturday that the inquiry would be worth £SOOO to the ratepayers of Wellington. It would certainly be a difficult job to fix the J monetary value of such an inquiry; but this much is perfectly clear, that under the late loose manner of conducting business it would bo quite possible for the ratepayers to be defrauded of twice the above amount in no very lengthened space of time. For all the; restrictions that would have been placed upon its operations, a “ Tammany' ring” could have flourished and fattened during the past few years in Wellington. “ Boss” Tweed deemed it necessary to get special Acts passed to aid him in his schemes. He might have managed without them here. Nobody appears to have read or understood sueh trash as the enactments of the Legislature, much less the paltry conditions of the Waterworks contract. The alleged tampering with the burgess roll was nothing, as affecting the interests of the ratepayers, compared with the practices which have been made public by the committee of investigation.