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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5244, 14 January 1878, Page 2

A letter published iu aiiucuer column will be read with great interest by the citizens of Wellington. It is a communication addressed by the late Mayor, Mr. Hutchison, to Mr. Mayor Brausheld, and has reference to the £2970 payment for extras. Mr. Hutchison appears to be of the opinion that all may yet be satisfactorily explained, and that although the alteration in the pipe culvert was made before the contract was signed, it was on the understanding that the increased thickness should be charged for as an extra, Mr. Saunders’ tender having been sent iu ami accepted before the alteration. It is just as well, even at this stage, to put one fact alongside another in laying the affair before the public: Mr. Blackett stated iu his evidence that he distinctly remembered milking an omission iu the work as a set-off against the increase iu the culvert ; and he had no hesitation iu stating that the item of £lOll should have been included in the original contract. It may be unfortunate, iu placing Mr. Saunders in an invidious position, that this particular “ extra” was not reduced to writing at the time the alteration was agreed to; but it would be highly undesirable that the ratepayers of ■Wellington should bb called upon to .pay the large sum of £lOll for a work which was clearly laid down in the specifications before the contract was signed, and for which the consulting engineer and arbiter, Mr. Blackett, states Mr. Saunders received, at the time the alteration was made, an equivalent in the shape of certain work being omitted. Truly, the labors of the Investigation Committee have shown that the surroundings of Waterworks contract are,such as to create a great feeling of uneasiness in the minds of the people of this citv.