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-What is your special duty, what do you look after?
A. Mostly under the Clerk of Works or repairs to buildings, but I have been on the sea-wall and the roads as well.
Q.—You have heard all this talk going about the Colony about the state of the department. Statements have been made in the newspaper about bribes being taken, and so forth. Can you tell us anything about it?
A.-No; I never heard anything about it.
Q.-One of the Overseers comes in a very straightforward way and says one man offered him a bribe for allowing lime to be kept out of concrete. Can you tell us any- thing like that?
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A.-No, I cannot.
Q. Has no money ever been offered to you ?
A.-No.
Q.--I suppose if you were disposed to set about it, it would not be difficult to get money out of the Contractors ?
A.-Well, I don't know, if you keep them up to the mark.
Q-A Clerk of Works or Overseer might make himself very disagreeable to a Contractor?
A.-No, I don't see that he could, as long as he did his work according to his specification.
Q. Do you have much trouble with Contractors ?
A.-Sometimes.
Q. How does the trouble arise?
A. Sometimes not putting on enough of men, but the chief trouble is with the
cement.
Q.-They have to provide the cement themselves?
A. In the contract they have.
Q.-And they naturally wish to use as little as possible.
A. Yes, and generally the cement is supplied from the department, and they would like to buy it themselves because they can get it cheaper.
Q.-They get cement which is not genuine?
A.-But we won't allow them to use it.
Q.—Well, would a man not pay you for allowing him to use very little cement?
A.-That would be well enough for him, but if the Surveyor General went and made him pull the work done he would lose money in that way.