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Q.-To come to the state of things to-day, what we mainly want to ask you is how Government Works compare with those carried out by private architects with regard to price and the soundness of execution?
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A.—I think they pay rather more and I think they get better work. They have much better supervision, and then Government always pay rather more I think because they will probably insist on better material in a building than a private individual would. A private individual generally says "I want a house, but I want it cheap; the Government say "We want a house and we want it good." The supervision is much better also, because they have so many hands, and a Chinaman will always require higher payment for Government Work.
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Q.-Mr. FLEMING has told us that as compared with the trained Overseers of the Royal Engineers, the Overseers of the Public Works Department are rather a poor lot. ·
A.-Very much so, I should say.
We are
Q.—But I infer again those employed by private architects are worse.
A.-Oh, much. We pick up beachcombers or any one we can get. building a house for a person and we ask if they will employ a clerk of works. If they say yes, we have to pick up the best man we can, probably a man who has been discharged from a ship. If we tell him to see the mortar mixed he will do so, or if we tell him to see a wall pulled down it is pulled down. They are not even mechanics. I have one for the Bank, but that is an exceptional work and we have succeeded in getting
one.
Q.-You are aware there has been good deal of talk about the Public Works Department and the alleged bribery and corruption. Do you know anything about that?
A.-All I know is hearsay, I have had things repeated to me by Contractors.
Q.-Could you tell us what they were?
A.—If I repeat a run our you will never be able to substantiate it, because if I were to call in a Contractor and say "Did you say so and so?" he would say no directly he got before the Commission.
Q.-Will you tell us please something they say?
Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.-Whether true or false it does not matter.
A. Well, one Contractor told me Mr. BOWDLER's house at the Peak was built for nothing on the understanding the man should have a large share in the Tai-tain Work.
Q.-Hon. A. LISTER.-Was he the man who built the house?
A.-No, he was not. Another Contractor told him.
Q-Hon. F. B. JOHNSON.- -Do
you know where he got it?
A.-No; I don't know who the Contractor was; that is, I know the Contractor who built the house, but I don't know whether he gets a share in the Tai-tam Works.