ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 218, 20 August 1862, Page 6

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

PUJ3LIC WORKS AND PUBLIC MONEY. (To tit Editor of & Daily Times.) Sib, —With considerable interest, I have examined the report of the select committee, appointed to inquire into iK 3 manner'of carrying out public works in Victoria,-a? well as jour remarks in reference to the

same, in your issue of the Bth ultimo, aud your re-commend-.1 iou that a commitee be appointed by the Provincial Government, for the same purpose in this Province. - , With votir permission, 1 ■will offer a few remarks on the svibj. v:fc, aud endeavor to point oat the way t!ie evil you oaiplain of may be remedied. It is not my intention to dwell any more on the said report than neccss :•}• for the illustration of the way in which such -works are carried out, which may enable the Government and public to profit by past experience. It cannot fail to strike anyone in reading the report but tint the Government of Victoria has been robbed of hundreds of thousands of pounds, while constructing roads, at a cost of millions. Hut in. looking over the nacjJs of the contractors who have executed the greatest portion of the works, we find that they are still, comparatively speaking, poor men, and many have more than once gone through the Insolvent Court. Many of them possibly have worked hard, and some of thorn may* have adopted an extravagant style of living, but where are the hundreds of thousands they have swindled the Government out of. Wthout speaking of their legitimate profits, they should have amassed immense fortunes, but it is not so, there are few but to myself and many others here are personally known and their circumstances unmistakable. Often now, when they take contracts, they have to borrow money for securities and get some one to a-sist them in carrying tb>m out. But no one that knows the practical working of these things in Victoria, will attempt to deny that there has been gigantic .fraud committed by evading the contracts. Ido not intend to. try and exonerate contractors, engineers, or inspectors, for I am sure some of them are guilty cveu of greater fraud than has Iwen discovered by tlio Cumrniircc of Enquiry. But the root of this evil Ims never been aimed--at"' It is in the Legislature i.self A'hcro this isoutrous piece, of-mismanagement arises. They interfero so much with the oiiicial working of the jJe- ■ payments, that the engineers or heads of the same, arc mere tools in t!uir hands ; not carrying out the wcvk to the be.-t of their ability ; being tied down by every possible means, which prevents them making use of* the practical knowledge they may be possessed of ■ Anout eight years ago, there was an outcry from the people of Victoria, that the Government was robbed through the Engineers not recommending that the lowest tenders be accepted. The Legislative thought it their duty to take up the question. They did so, and declared that their luigineers, or hauls'of Departments, should.-have nothing more to do with the merits of contractors, but that it should'be compulsory with them to accept the lowest tenders; aud in all cases I believe this has been done, although in many instauces, contracts have been taken for the supply of thousands of yards of metal, say at &s. per cubic yard, and the contractor himself has had to pay for quarrying-, breaking, and carting, 10s. per yard, independent of materials and tools for the work, with many other contingencies. It was not hard to discover in such cases, that there must be fraud on the part of some one, or the "contractor would be ruined if he con-tinue-.l working on this principle. Most of the contracts referred to in the Select Committee's report, moro especially those on the Sydney road, must have been carried out ou the above principle. The official management of this immense department is organised by the Legislative Assembly. An engineer is placed at the head, and styled InspectorGenernl; his district is the whole Colony, and I should think he does not travel in one year over more than a fourth of the roads of which he is inspector. His time is chiefly occupied in signing vouchers and answering questions put to him by the Legislature, and in hearing disputes between engineers, inspectois, and contractors. He has not the appointment of the district engineers, inspectors, or overseers. These are apr-^foted by the Commissioner of Roads and Bridges ; therefore if he, though head of the department, felc assured that an engineer was not competent, he could not dismiss him. The same with the contractor: he may be certain that a contractor could not cany out a certain piece of work for a certain sum of money, or that he is incompetent to do so at almost any price; or he may know that he is a rogue, and would, under'any circumstances, try to evade him ; yet he cannot, nor dare not, refuse him the contract, the Legislature having decided that he shall have it. Therefor" use Inspector General feeling that he has no power, uV- not take much interest iv the matter, beyond sif-ilng the necessary documents as they come before 'him, and hearing the disputes lor the sake of formality, not being in a position to settle them, or dismiss aiuer for neglect, inability, or fraud. "/We tV.en pass on to the District Engineer. He receives m» order to get out certain plans and sections of roads and bridges, that have been decided by the Legislature as necessary to be done ; he sends them to the .'lnspector General, who, no doubt, adopts them, f s he very wisely considers that the engineer is better "oquainted'with, the ground than himself, and shouid know what is required. There has often bean as macii as LIOO,OOO expended in one of these districts' iv one year. When the contracts are let, which is seldom long after the money is .voted, for then there are generally .outcries'-from the residents about the bad state of *;he roads, frrightening the timid Executive into giving hasty orders to have the work carried out; then these plans and specifications are unquestionably-adopted, and there is no one "to ask whether there are LIOOO saved, or LIOOO thrown away. With all its fault?, or with all its merits it i? sent on to the contractor and "the .overseer, the official voder the District Engineer. A jireat many of them (the overseers) are artful Joafe.% originally working men, and get no higher wages rhan"Wh; the best of them are professional men, who have not been able to get other appointments, and they take the salary which barely supports them. The plans and specifications are put into their hands, with an or|*r from the District Engineer to see them carried o it. If there is only alf the metal supplied and spread upon the road than is specified in the contract, the contractor gets the overseer to sign as per contract, and it is all right; there is little fear of detection \in most instances if the overseer and contractor are in collusion. Ido not say by any means that this is always the case,, but where the contractors and overseer-had come to an understanding previous to the contracts having been let, the contractor makej up his mind to tender at a very low rate, so as to make certain of getting the contract; for he knows that there is profit to be mude on it at any price by the assistance of the inspector. It'isvuryJikely that this puity had never been a contractor before, but merely a friend of the inspector's with whom he has colleagued to rob the 'Government, and defeat bowifi.de contractors. Now who has the creating of these two rogues ? Is it the Engineer at the head of the department, or the Legislature'! Under the "principle I have shown the latter must bear the blame, though generally demagogues among the people; for while echoing every public cry, they ignorantly lay the basis for a jngautic system of swindling, as well as robbin" the public of the well-paid professional skill of all the Government Engineers; for I do not suppose tb.3re is one among the many.we have, will take the slightest pains to produce a plan that will afford additional utility to be derived from the large sum expended in public work. Therefore, works of °reat magnitude and costs cf tens of thoiifauds of pounds are planned and carried out by an engineer, who may be entirely incompetent for his business, and without feeling the BJlglite«t interest in it, "perhaps, at a waste of one half the amount, or in some cases which I have known at the loss of the whole.^ without the slightest scrutiny or examination of its utility, or giving any one, who might be more interested in it, the privilege of suggetting any improvement. Six years ago there was about £40,000 spent on a plnnk road which was shortly after pulled up, and replaced by metal. Bridges I have known to be built one year, and when it was found the design did not suit the positions they were pulled down the next, and hundreds'of instances might be given, or more, where money has b^n spent for the obstruction of r ads rather than the making of them. The evil and fraud discovered by the select committee is not half equal to that I have just mentioned, inasmuch as we find the Government was not robbed of haif the amount of the contracts as shewn by that enquiry. For the contractor who intended h-aud was always the lowest tend -rar, and that generally by 25 per eent.,*:o that he would have to rob the Government of 35 per cent, of his entire contract to make 10 per cent profit; that he would probably think little enough for himself, and the Inspector. I have no doubt but great discoveries would have been made long ago if the Dietrict Engineers had taken nn interest in their work, or that the Inspector General's will had been his own to put in execution. There have been uany contractors who knew this, but their lips we,m -;ealed, seeing the position they were placed in by being dependent on District Engineers and Overseers—knowing that it would be their own ruin to Hay ono word against them, unless they could effect their «RsiTiUsal, which was almost impossible! In their relative positions. This dishonest principle hiis done more ujury to the honafide contractor than anything else p tfasibly could have done. . But there is still another Til, which assists greatly in carrying out the systerr. uready explained, and is equally prejudicial to th«. "nteresfc? of the Government and the public gener :.\;\ and that i 3 the one-sidtd specification and contract which the Government call upon the con-

tractors to execute. It is not a contract iv the true sense of the word, but a bond or execution, which is drawn in such a way that the Government can do as they like. It is 'simply. made by and for the Government alone. A contract, I take it, is between two or more. This principle is entirely forgotten in these documents; they arc so much one-sided that the contractor is to the engineer what a -Russian serf is to his master. If he cannot defend himself by entreaty, cunning, or stealth, he knoivs he cannot by an appeal to justice; therefore he w merely a tool under him to do his bidding, right or wrong. It may not be according to (he specification; if lie required it must.be done. -lithe con tractor offends him, he will not advance any money nor give him his certificate, or he will curtail its legitimate measurement. The specification gives them the power as well as the inspector, who is left in charge of the works. This is not only a weapon fin*-the engineer, inspector and contractors, in collusion, to defend themselves with, but acti as a shield from the scrntiiiy o£ honest and observant contractors. This specification makes the whole system complete, and I fear much, if it had not been for the death of a well known contractor in.'.-Victoria, who lately died. intestate, his affairs • and books were in consequence examined by his administrators, who discovered that the trilling sum of L7OO had baen paid to a Government inspector for passiutf one certificate of a Government contract), those discoveries never would have been made. 1 also doubt very much ifthe said contractor were still alive ai\d went to the Inspector General, and told him what he had done, he would not have been believed, and been branded as a'rogue, aud marked for persecution by the Inspector, who j would have kept his situation; but it is well there is ! a change, though it is caused by the death of a contractor.

But let us see how this is going to affectour position in Otago, what lesson is it going' to teach us, or what profit shall we srulu by past experience. Questions like these might have been asked eight years ago in Victoria, and would have millions of public money if they had been properly answered. luo not mean to say on roads alone, but if it were not trespassing too much upon your patience, 1" would give you the .figures of the -millions that have boeu uselesslythrotvu away upon water works, railways aud roads aud bridges, not speaking of.public buildings.' But at the present time, what is our system and orgauization of the public roaJs and works t!ep:n tmeut in this■ Province I They are not one jot better than those I have boon describing1, though not -yet on ho largo a .scale. i = our Legislature are, ad iv Victoria, ihe Engineers virtually, though for the mo»tpart they must be cumiuly ignorant.of th.' professional duties required to carry out the'works,, of pub-' lie improvement. , ■ '" If the appointment of a committee of ehf<|uiry here wouhi instruct these gentlemen in" the duties of tho position they assume ; if it would make thtisa what they profc&i to be,'ami teach them to .spend the public money to the best advantage, I certainly would ail vise you to recommend the appointment of the said committee, but i am natch afraid it would not do so. However it would be better'to have an inquiry- into the way in which public works tmuulil be carried out, and s«i if there can be any beueiieuii change made in the present syslciu. It "is evident there is much "to teach our legislator* before there can bean improvement. They cannot commence too soon. I. fear that I have dwelt too long on your gpaco and patience without fulfilling my'promise- of giving you my suggestion for si.iN-uj&iy fur tho evil you couip!ain of; but with your permission I will make it the subject of further correspondence. I remain, Bir, Your obe iient servant, 11. Y. 11. Duneuin, August lStli, 1802.