HOW IT IS DONE!

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2482, 4 March 1881, Page 2

HOW IT IS DONE!

[to the editor]

Sir —I see by your report of the Harbor Board’s meeting that the secretary to the Board stated the reason that he did not baity put the wishes or orders of his employers was because the goods he required Were not kept in stock by me. Now I wish to remark that the statement is a deliberate falsehood. I called upon the secretary after the Board had granted my request, and asked him for a list of the,goods required, so that anything I had not in stock I should procure. I also offered to send a man down every day to see if they required anything, but he said it was unnecessary. The description of goods procured from Messrs Priest and Holdgate I had in stock, and he (the secretary) knew it; hence the falsehood. Mr Editor, I would not trouble you with all this, but the principle ot allowing servants of a public body to do as they like, in giving patronage (for their own reason) where they choose, is, IJmaintain, wrong. If it suits their ideas to deal at certain places it appears they always have an excuse for doing so. Of course if I had interviewed the secretary first, and had got his sanction, I dare say he would have found no obstacles ; but as I first applied at head quarters and got their sanction it did not suit. Unfortunately the rule here with most of the public bodies is that you must first g**t (he approval of the servants or officers and then ask their employers.—Yours, &c., J. R. STANSELL, Proprietor, Sheffield Warehouse.