WHO PAYS?

NZ Truth, Issue 1147, 24 November 1927, Page 6

WHO PAYS?

IS UNITY STRENGTH?

WAY OF A DRAY

TAR— NOT 'THANKS

OTHERS

Civic Waste — Some

Hard Hitting

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland

Rep.)

Has Auckland City Councillor W. H, Murray signalled the dawn of municipal revelation, by tearing off the gloves and Wading into facts and figures, calculated to prove "eloquent testimony of gross wastefulness m some of the handling of the municipal purse?"

THIS much is certain— that Council - * lor Murray was a member of a special committee appointed to report on. the methods of oarting metals and the purchase of certain road-making material. Further, he is a careful observer, imbued with' a high sense of public duty. He Bhould be listened to when he launches out m defence of muddle-fuddle-headed utilisation of ratepayers' hard enough earned money.

Councillor Murray's cold, unvarnished statements of the extraordinary antics of a contractor's dray In Sherrif Street; his disclosures of the waste of bitumen at one of the Council's depots, and of the amazing juggling and incomprehensible treatment that has been going on -In respect to certain contracts, awaken public Interest.

The evidence that Councillor Murray had placed before the meeting up to the time he was ordered to discontinue m somewhat autocratic terms by Mayor George Bail don waß", m Itself, sufficient to have shaken every member from his attitude of scepticism or downright apathy. The only effect it had apparently on Mayor George Balldon was to leave him as bewildered as a bird In a blizzard.

, The members of the special committee were: The Mayor, Councillors Dempsey (chairman). Paterson, Phelan, Casey, Donald, Murray and Davis.

To deal m detail with the charges levelled by Councillor Murray. Referring to the committee's recommendation for the continuance of the present method of employing private carters, be said he approved of this, but stated he was not satisfied that the system, laid down was being followed. Aa an example, he instanced the extraordinary operations of a, contractor's dray m- Sherrif Road on October 17. This dray was employed for some hours, he said, needlessly recarting from one side of the road to the other (a distance of twenty-five feet) clay that had just a little while before been carted the same distance acroaa the/ road, but the reverse way.

The public hardly needs to be told that drays supplied by contractors cost the Council a heavy sum per hour for hire.

If Councillor Murray's figures are correct, and they should be since they were supplied by Council officials, it has cost the ratepayers £75,365 m three years for cart and lorry hire; or an average of £25,122 yearly.,

Councillor Murray turned his attention to the Stone Jug Quarry at Grey Lynn, which he visited with the rest Of the committee. This quarry has been closed" for' three -years. There were, he-said,. T on the subsequent estimate of an expert whose services he engaged to examine the material, SOOO yards of first grade blue metal spawls lying m this quarry, and they had been lying there ready for use ever since it had been closed.

During those three years the Council had , constructed many road's m proximity to this quarry m which these spawls could have been used with the additional cost of cartage only. Instead of doing this, the Council had actually paid up to 8/6 per yard to outside. firms for what Councillor Mvr r ray said he had been informed was m part inferior material!

The next item on Councillor Moray's programme was the "sheer waste" of bitumen m the Council's depot beneath the archways at the Grafton end of the Cemetery Bridge. The committee, he added, were not taken to see this depot, which was, open to the public, any member of which could walk m at any old time and help themselves.

Many thousands of pounds of bitumen was spread out on the ground, where it had poured from smashed casks, and this was running to waste down a steep hillside into a gully at the foot of the main arch of the bridge. Following the flow downhill, Councillor Murray said he discovered quite a number of barrels of bitumen m various Btages of dilapidation. Another matter which he had attempted to deal with satisfactorily m committee was the purchase of kerbs and pitchers used m Council road work since February, 1925. Murray made it clear that the figures given were furnished by the staff of the city engineer's department to the special committee. On February 16, 1925, Mr. Bush m writing estimated that for the forthcoming year his department's requirements for kerbs and pitchers would be approximately 264,000 feet of each. Contracts for the supply of this material were given to nine firms at the flat rate of 1/1 and 1/0% per foot.

According to figures relating to contracts from April 1, 1925, and supplied by the Engineer's Department to the special committee, three firms have been given orders running into some thousands of feet over their contracts, whilst the majority of the firms have not yet had their contracts completed. The extraordinary preference shown to the following three firms surely calls for an explanation:— E. J- Drum and Sons' contract was 15,000 feet of each material, and they supplied on order to the Council 11,030 feet and 10,980 feet respectively over the contract. H. Bray and Co. supplied on order over their contract 17,600 feet and 16,900 feet respectively, whilst Isherwood and Bellum supplied 3820 feet and 1700 feet respectively of kerbs And pitchers over the contract. Even were the matter to end there it would be serious enough, but what follows seems, on the face of it, indefensible. Whilst those nine contracts, six of which are still uncompleted, were still m force, orders were given to seven other persons m no way connected with the contractors for the supply of 76,200 feet of kerbs and 73,260 feet of pitchers.

It might be pointed out m connection yvlth this supply that a gentleman named J. T. feray Stewart supplied 34,600 feet of kerbs and 36,200 feet of pitchers, and that he was favored to the extent that not only was his order by far the highest of the non-contrac-tors, but he ranks third highest m supply as far as the contractors are concerned. He merely missed ranking second highest, by a matter ot 760 kerbs! ,

There is a mass of evidence at the .disposal bf this paper, and if the City Council members stick to their determination to hush the whole business up m the secrecy of a committee inquiry, then the ratepaying publio Bhftfi have *bt truth through these oolunoaa.