The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1890.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3591, 19 August 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1890.

Atendevwas recently advertised in the columns of the Hawkes Bay timid for half-soling a pair of boots, Whether the announcement was bom 1 fide we are not prepared to say, but the. reductlo ad absurdum is very frequeatlv reached under the tender system."ln this.town even the printing trade has been subjected to the extreme rigor of such competition and our personal experiences enable us to speak with some authority on tho subject, Paring the past few months we have givei} {finders fa" scores of big printing contracts ranging from half a crown upwards, and as a rule we have found ourselves out in the cold, On soveral consecutivo occasions in tendering we quoted itbsohlc m 1 F w < we a " thoughts of profit tp. the winds, but to our astonishment even then wo found that our quotations ranged some thirty or forty per cent above tho sucscssful tender. Then, for an experiment, we put in a price at half cost, and this.time wo.really were successful, We had found the love! onwluoh we could go in and win! Saving found out the relative advantage of being a successful tenderer and an unsuccessful tenderer, we came to tbe.conclusion that the real person to be pitied was the successful tenderer. When wo occupied that exalted position we th.QiijgM of the broom seller of old in tho streets of London, who, when challenged as to why be •sold cheaper \ than a rival, wboso material cost him ) nothing, answered " I steal my k'ooms ready made." In Wellington the evijs of undue typographical competition have been njitig'ated by a sort 0 f printers'" corner," AjirPrt time ago a bailiff took possession of the belongings of one master printer, who had executed some marvellously cheap contracts, and the other members of the <:rait combined and .fixed a uniform scale, under which a printer may live liko a lighting jock. Prices have gone up about a hundred percent,, and typographical tenders are things of the pant in tho Empire 0; ly gtill tbe »bolhio» of tbp tender system f? follow* k »»»** abuse, viz,, excessive ohu^ o "' an ,.. 1l would not be prudent for the puJ..'° to lightly abandon the advantages they derive by open competition in prices. At tbe samo time they risk the loss of the latter when they push the tender system to extreme or absurd lengths.