THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, MAY 6, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2877, 6 May 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, MAY 6, 1878.

■Some time ago a motion was brought forward in the Borough Council—by Councillor McGowan, we think—to the effect that all requisites of the Borough should be supplied by tender. Whether it was that the greater part of these requisites were supplied from the establishments of some Councillors, and the others did not wish to see those gentlemen disqualified from sitting at the Council board, we can-" not say, but the motiou/was rejected. It could not have been- on th» score that those "requisite*" made up aninsignifi-

cant item and were not worth inviting tenders for. A perusal of the monthly accounts would show that ike payments for timber, nails, tools, and ironwork exceeded any other department, as a rule, except salaries, labour sheet, and contract works. If the Council had not been so solicitous to economise in some other matters, probably no one would have considered it advisable to question their action in rejecting what many burgesses considered a very fair proposition. For instance, it has been the policy of the Council for a long time to ask for tenders for the smallest piece of job printing, whilst the advertising—considered so important that for the protection of the public the legislature .has made it compulsory on municipal bodies to give certain things due publicity by this means —has been divided between the local papers monthly or quarterly alternately. The expenditure for printing and advertising has been more than it will be in the future, a large share of the money spent being incidental to the initiation of municipal affairs. As we said before, a parsimonious spirit has been exhibited in this direction, and that, too, by councillors who have been receiving accounts for goods charged at full cost month after

-month. Tt may be said that we are writing on a matter personal to ourselves. In one sense this is correct, but we have before written in the same strain when there could not have been the shadow of such a charge involved ; and because it happens that the proprietor of this journal is sometimes interested in Borough contracts (saye the mark!) that is no reason" we should remain silent when abuses crop up which we think need ventilating. The Borough Council have lately called for tenders for printing the Burgess 8011, but with that inconsistency which seems to characterise their actions when their own pecuniary interests are not involved, they have extended the field of their operations to Auckland printers—one. of whose tenders, for the only printing work the Borough Council have at their disposal during the year which ia worth tendering for, has been accepted. The difference in price for the work is a matter of £3; and the total cost will only amount to some £25. We would like to ask the gentlemen whose accounts (sometimes amounting in one month to the cost of printing the Burgess Boll) are passed regularly without demur how they can reconcile this action with their reiterated professions of doing the best for the burgesses. The Mayor himself, who draws a regular, salary, and two. guineas a day every time he proceeds on mysterious missions to Auckland, can he justify this miserable attempt to deceive the burgesses as to his desire to conserve the funds of the ratepayers ? Can those councillors who voted for an expenditure' of £400 or £500 "to lay fire mains along two or three streets in which they have property pretend to be actuated by a spirit of economy in sending work out of the district to save a paltry £3 ? We would like to hear- an expression of opinion from these complacent councillors who can pocket monthly considerable sums from the Borough funds for articles purchased at their establishments [because tin employees of the Borough would not dare go elsewhere for them) whether their action is consistent with sending for tenders to Auckland for a paltry job of printing ? It is simply contemptible. We have no hesitation in saying that there are members of the Borough Council—who are also members of other Corporations by ' virtue of their office as councillors—whose profits are materially augmented by business done for these corporations; and it is asserted, though much is hidden under the secrecy of" committee work," that some of these haTenot been backwardin denouncing the system of tendering for supplies^ If one portion of the services 'for local bodies is to be done by tender, let all be placed on the same footing. Give the different banking corporations a chancfe of competing for the Borxmgh account, and the "fat" interest on the overdraft; for supplies of timber and other requisites let the Auckland mill proprietors and tradesmen have a show. Let us have fair play and no favor in these matters.