The Standard. (PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SATURDAY.) SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1874.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 138, 21 February 1874, Page 2

The Standard. (PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SATURDAY.)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1874.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right : We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

The Road Board is either willing to be led by the nose in a most blind and docile manner by its Chairman, or it is acting in a very unbusinesslike manner. We refer again, and not for the last time, to the tender for printing and advertizing, which the Board has accepted from this office, the procuring of which, read by the light of subsequent events, we characterize as being gained by deceptive means and under false pretences. This is a question that, unfortunately for the wrong contained in it, belongs to ourselves personally, and we would that we had to do the work of fighting it out on some one else’s account; but it is a representative case, in which the public are much interested, and whose prime feature of injustice may be inflicted on them on the acceptance of the very next contract. And we invite the attention of the public to a consideration of it on those grounds. The simple history of the transaction is this : —Tenders were supplied by each of the printing offices in Gisborne, stating on what terms either would undertake to do the printing and advertizing for the Board for the remainder of the Board’s official term of office. The tender sent from the Standard office, being the lowest, was, after some opposition from the Chairman, accepted. Shortly after, a letter appeared in the Herald, — without any further reference to this office,— signed by the Chairman of the Road Board in which the proprietor of that journal is informed that he should share the benefit of the tender and be paid for all advertisements inserted in the usual course. Last Tuesday—just a mouth after the acceptance of the tender —the Secretary left an official announcement at this office to the effect “ that it was never contem- “ plated that the proprietor of the “ Standard should have the exclusive “ right of printing for the Board.” It is needless to stop now to enquire into the cause of this. The known friendship that subsists between the Chairman of the Board and the Poverty Bay Herald, as against the oft-illustrated enmity of that functionary towards the Standard, may be of special service in arriving at a decision. But we may fairly ask why were tenders called for at all, if the work w as not to be given to one exclusively ? And why was Mr. Carlile informed that his tender bad been rejected, if it had been intended all along that he should profit in the deception ? As we have said, more has yet to come of this ; but in the meantime the fact should not be lost sight of that we have men, holding public positions amongst us, capable, we > repeat, of either blindly following their prejudiced leader, or of allow-

ing themselves to be influenced in their public action to the extent of leading business people into a snare. For it cannot be too often iterated, that for a public body to callfortenders for the execution of a specific work, with suppressed conditions as to its performance (although we believe they were an afterthought) and then to accept the lowest tender as a basis upon which the work shall be given to each tenderer, is an inveigling process that should be thoroughly and universally condemned. It is unjust, impolitic, and deceptive. We are sorry to have this declaration forced from us, for there are some members on the Board who command our esteem, and whom we thought beyond the reach of personal bias, but as they have identified themselves with the action of their Chairman, they must accept a full share of the condemnation which their most unprecedented and unwarrantable act justly calls forth.

Thunderstorm. — The fearfully grand thunderstorm which passed over Poverty Bay on the 12th inst. did a little local damage. Mr. W. Smith had 3 sheep killed, and the lightning left visible effects on some standing timber in the bush at the rear of Mr. Hardy’s house at the Makauri. Artesian Well.— Mr. Higgins’ meeting at the Masonic Hotel on Monday night was, we learn, anything but a success. There were about a dozen persons present, amongst whom there was a difference of opinion as to whether Mr. Higgins’ proposition, to supplement public subscriptions for the purpose of sinking an artesian well on his premises should be entertained, or whether Mr. Higgins should first of all fulfill his promise of spending £lOO in endeavoring to obtain water, before he asked the public to assist by subscribing. Practically the question stands as it did before the meeting.