PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1880. OPEN CONTRACT.

Patea Mail, 30 September 1880, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1880. OPEN CONTRACT.

The Contract for supplying rations to the forces along this Coast is to include also the rations for Public Works con-

tingents of “ unemployed.” The rate per head under the expiring arrangement was Is 3d, whereas the new contract is at 10£ d, a difference of per head per day. What saving to the Government does that represent? There, have been at least 600 men drawing Government rations on this Coast during the past twelve months, at a total cost of about £37 10s per day, £262 a week, or £13,G50 paid to the contractor for one year’s rations. Reducing

the cost per head per diem from Is 3d to 10 7 j-d, the Government will effect a saving of £4,322. Is there any reason why that amount should have been taken from the taxpayers to hand over to one favoured contractor for no equivalent whatever? His profit on the contract would come out of the 10|-d, if profit there be ; and wc must assume that Mr John Stevenson, of Hawera, took care to put himself on the safe side in tendering at 10|-d. That sum of £4,322 has been thrown away in one year on one single item by a Government which calls itself virtuous. That contract was given without public tender. There must have been some reason or consideration in the bargain. Major Atkinson knows what it is. Will he inform his constituents what was the consideration which induced him to give away that £4,322 ? Will he explain how he gets the right or authority to pay away £4,322 out of public money for no public equivalent ? And here he is impounding 10 per cent, off the wages of schoolmasters, and clerks, and surveyors, and other poorly paid servants, to make up for money spent by him as a paid Minister in a manner which would not be tolerated by any private employer. It is to he hoped this West Coast contract will be a lesson to Colonial Treasurers. Public attention was called to this matter in the Mail, and exposure has brought a remedy. How can intelligent settlers expect this journal to remain silent in a case of this kind, and sing the praises- of administrators whose actions will not bear scrutiny ? To do that with a guilty knowledge would be placing a journalist in the position ot an accessory after the fact. Corruption in public affairs is nauseous, and shall be put down in this district by appeal to the honest sympathies of the majority.