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Q.-I suppose, having been three years in the department, you are pretty well acquainted with its working?
A. Yes.
Q.-We have gone very carefully into the question of contracts, the way that work is assigned to various Contractors, the way that the results are ascertained, and pay- ments made. Is there any improvement you could suggest on the existing system?
A.—That is a very hard question. I think calling for tenders is unquestionably the fairest way of beginning-prepare the plans and specifications and everything exactly, so that every man tenders on the same basis, and I think it is the fairest plan for the Government to accept the lowest tender, if the tenderer is a good man.
Q.--But would you advocate the acceptance of the lowest tender under any circum-
stances?
A.-No, decidedly not.
Q.-Will you tell us your reason for that?
*
A. We often have a man tender for work in our business to whom I should not
dream of giving a contract, not knowing his financial position, or the work he executes, or for other reasons; that is to say, his tender would appear, but I should advise my clients not to accept it for certain reasons.
Q.-
-I suppose, then, there are men out of whom you cannot get good work?
A.-Unquestionably.
Q. Do you think the system of advertising for tenders and accepting the lowest safe tender is fairly carried out?
A. Yes. There is one practice that used to go rather against the grain, that is, it is the custom to take Contractors in a body to view the works and explain to them through an Interpreter what the work is and how it has to be done. Say you have five of them; if you take them in a body it leaves it open to them to make an arrangement between themselves. It would entail more work to take them singly, but I question the advisability of taking them in a body.
Q.-Knowing, as you must know, the number of men here who are able and in a position to contract for Government work, do you think the Government gets fairly the best of the labour market, the best of the Contractors?
A. Yes. I think that with perhaps one or two exceptions the very best Con- tractors in the Colony tender for Government work.
Q.-There are one or two Contractors who do not do Government work?
A. Yes, who decline to tender at all.
*Q.-Will you name them?
A. There is TAI YIK, the Contractor for the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, one of the wealthiest and best Contractors in the Colony.