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Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1058, 5 April 1879, Page 2

At a meeting of the Education Committee of the We3t Hamilton School district, hold on Wednesday evening, it was announced that the Education Board had declined to accede to the request of the committee m remitting the forfeiture of a sum of some =£38 for non-completion of a contract within the specified time by Me Elliott, the contractor for carrying out certain alterations and additions to the school and schoolhouse at Hamilton West. A very unanimous feeling was expressed by the conitnitte that the Board should re-consider the matter, and the secretary, Mr J. Knox, was requested to wait upon the Education Board when m Auckland a few days hence, and personally represent the case. Many contractors, it is well known have cf late put the Board to serious inconvenience by not keeping to the contract time m tue completion of their work, and it has been found necessary to deal sharply m these cases. The case oi the Hamiiton West School and teacher's house is, however, an exception which may fairly claim a different treatment. The delay has not merely caused no inconvenience, but has been purposely made by the contractor, and to his own inconvenience, to suit that of the working of the school, the work being done on Saturdays and out of school hours so as not to interfere with the teach, ing of the children. No loss m any form or shape has arisen from the delay m completing the contract. Doubtless, the officer m charge of the expenditure of the money voted for school building erection m this educational district, will endeavor, as he should do, to make the amount at disposal go as far as possible, but neither would he, we are sure, any more than the public at large care to economise by what was loss to a private individual, arrived at by taking advantage of a power which was reserved to the one contrasting party to prevent abuse on the part of the other. The spirit of the contract has not been: broken, however much the letter of it has been contravened— the work has been completed and passed as having been satisfactorily performed, and the delay has been the c ause of convenience, not of loss, to ths working of the school.