Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4283, 24 November 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1892.

Being tub extended title or the WiiitißiPA Daily, with which it is IDENTICAL

When anything is done in connection with Government property, when a ceiling is to be whitewashed, a window blocked up or a chair mended it is customary for the House of Representatives to obtain a return and print the same at the public expense showiug how much .the thing costs, why it costs so much and the reason why it does not cost more, A Parliamentary paper lies before us entitled " Erection of new fence Parliament House grounds" which in its way is rather a big thing as it has cost the country, without calculating the expense of preparing and printing the return, a sum of £l7B 9a lOd. The original estimate, together with paint-' iug amounted to £ll3 0s Od, so that the final cost was 6ouie 70 per cent in advance of the estimate, This perhaps is explained by the consideration that the structure was erected either in the co-operative priuciple or by day labour, Had it beon despatched under the old fashioned but discredited system of tender, its cost would have been unlikely to exceed the estimate, We learn by the return that oatpon* ters were paid Is 4d per hour on the job, and labourers Is Od 4-sths per hour. This extra 4-sths d, perhour accorded toJabourew shows how liberal the Government is in ilsdealings with the "horny-handed." What other employer would add four«Hfths of a penny to the proverbial shilling an hour for digging post holes ? A footnote explains that both carpenters and labourers enjoyed the customary halfholiday once a week, and in the schedule it is stated that there was an allowance, amount not stated, for time lost by broken weather, halfholiday, etc, the etcetera being highly suggestive. AH sorts of curious information is given in the return; we are told that 281b of red lead was used, at a cost of 6s lid, and 1451bs of nails, at 18s 6d per cwt, but if we try to pieco the information together with a view to discovering, the real oost of the work, we are compelled to give up the task in despair, The. length and height of the fence is not given, we. cannot discover whether it cost ten, twenty or thirty pounds a chain, all that can be gathored is that its cost exceeded the original estimate by about seventy per cent. -Whether tho excess is under the average or above the average in Government undertakings, we know not; but the taxpayers of New Zealand who have to pay these little excesses,: will, in time, regret the demise of the con-, traot syptem, Under it there would, we venture to say, have been no allowances for broken weather and bolf-holidays, and the oxtra4-stha of a penny per hour would scarcely have, been conceded to the Gentlemen who dug the post holes.