STATE RAILWAYS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10603, 31 May 1920, Page 3

STATE RAILWAYS

AND PRIVATE CONTRACTING. MINISTER ON MINERS’ PROTEST. Reference was made on Saturday by the Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister for Public Works, to the recent piotest by a meeting of State miners against the adoption of tho system of private contracting in connection with the construction of Government railways. The Public Works Department, stated tho Minister, wished to adopt a system which would offer an incentive to get work done and out of the way. The system which it was proposed to adopt was an ordinary contract so far as the department was concerned, but ho had been apjiroached by a number of experienced men. who have been for some time employees of the Public Works Department, with tho suggestion that they should take the contract in co-operation. They would elect their managers, and would enter into a bond in the usual way. To meet them in tho matter of finance, the department would endeavour to assist in finding material. In every other way the system would bo that ot ordinary contracting. The men would tender for the whole fob, and would share the contractor’s profit. This was different from the present co-operative system, where tho men worked for a period on a job which had been valued by tl e engineers at a certain rate. The present proposal was to give out tho whole job,' and offer an incentive to get the work done, which was what the department wanted.