Q.-Pay clerk?
A.-No, not the
pay clerk.
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Q.-With regard to the quality of the work. You have been in the Government service and are now a private Architect. What is your view of the work done by Gov- ernment and that done privately? Does the Government get as good value for what they pay as you do?
A. I think not by a few per cent. As I said before, I think the Government has to pay a few per cent more. It is so more or less, I fancy, everywhere. I was in the Crown Agents' Office at home, and there it was always acknowledged. The Crown Agents have tried several times to be made into a Government Department, but the Colonial Office have always objected on the ground that a Government Department could not work so economically as private firms.
Q.-You think the work is not so cheap, taking quality into consideration?
A.-No. I think that is partly due to the red tape, if I may say so, the form. A Contractor has a big contract in hand. We will say he does $2,000 worth of work, when he has done three weeks' work, he then has to send the bill in before the 20th of
the month, and he does not get paid for his first week's work until nearly a month after the time the work was done.
Q.-Are you sure that is the system?
We have been looking into that.
Nothing was paid between the 20th of one
A.-That was the system in my time. month and the 20th of the next. I am not speaking of a special work like that at Tai-tam; they have made special arrangements for that; but for ordinary work, if send bills in on the 21st the Audit Office would not pass them.
Q.-Generally speaking, is the work superior to that of private Architects?
A.-Yes; I think they pay for and get better work.
you
Q.—But still, taking work for work, it is not done so economically?
"
A.-I think not. Private firms can oblige a Contractor better. A Contractor may come and say. "I am very hard up. I wish you could give me a payment on account.' It is the usual custom to retain 20 per cent in hand. You are quite safe sometimes, if you know your man, to give him a part of that 20 per cent, which towards the end of a large contract amounts to a large sum. He
may come to you and say, "I am hard up. I want to buy tiles or timber for the roof," and if we think fit we give it him. I don't think the Government do that. A firm has no object in coming and saying, "We think this Contractor ought to have another certificate given him.”
Q.-I don't understand you to say you think Government work is dearer because heavy bribes are given?
A.-No; I don't think heavy bribes are given in comparison with the work done, Still, a man with $60 a month-!