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Southland Times, Issue 1565, 19 April 1872, Page 2

for the means of satisfying wbich they will have to apply to the Council at the session now approaching. We know of! course that the thing was not done without some reason, whether good or bad ; and we may have no right to assume that the reason was other than a ■rood one, till we hear what it really was. But we cannot- help thinking that the Executive will find it difficult to show what considerations of public welfare determined the course which they adopted. The contractors declared 'the work to be finished. The engineer said it vvas not. The contractors were bound by the«contract to abide by the decision of the engineer. The Government had power, in event of their refusal, to enter upon the line, and complete the works at the contractors' expense. No protection to the interests of the public, we imagine, could be more perfect than this, if the Government had no. other object , than the interests of the public in view. A simple adherence to the contract would nave secured the completion of the work. It may bethafc the terms on which it would have had to be completed would have involved the contractors in serious loss. Such thingß have been heard of before, and yefc it has never been recognised as a duty on the part of a Government to protect contractors from loss in carrying out their agreements. The responsibility assumed by the Government was two-fold. They took the line off the contractors' hands while the engineer declared that the works contracted for had not been completed ; j and they annulled the provisions of the i contract regarding the price to be paid for the work, referring that question to the decision of an irresponsible tribunal of arbitration. As a result of this interference of the Executive, the contractors have been awarded, aud the public will have to pay, a sum greatly in excess of what would have been required had the arrangement made by the Southland Government been adhered to.