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Q.-Hon. A. LISTER.-As to the abolition of the $100 or $50 which used to be asked for in the advertisement for tenders, which I see you abolished as soon as you came back, was any order given about it, or was it done on your own suggestion?
A.-Oh, yes, there was a Colonial Secretary's Order on the subject.
Q.-For the abolition of that?
A. Yes.. If I may explain to the Commission, I have had one object and one object only in view, and that is to stimulate competition, and I found that was hampered by vexatious restrictions. I wanted to get hold of a lot of respectable Contractors, who would not undertake Government work owing to annoying restrictions, and I knew that the $50 did no good, and simply irritated them. It was no good, and therefore I sug- gested to the Administrator, Mr. MARSH, to have it abolished, and he agreed with me.
Q.--Have you been able to find out anything about the question of that water which was or is still turned on at the Bank, as to whether Rose ever made any report?
A.-No. ROSE made no report; there is nothing in the records of my office. After you mentioned the thing privately to me I went down to that work; and I find it is a pipe from SIEMSSEN'S. After the Bank premises were vacated, Rose, in the ordinary prosecution of his duties, cut off the supply; he cut off the Queen's Road supply, and not the supply which passes into the Bank from SIEMSSEN'S.
Q. Do you as head of the department look upon that as a satisfactory explanation?
A.-I think it would be. I went down, after the conversation with you, and I could not find this thing, and I thought there must be some mistake, and it was only when I got hold of TAI YIK, the Contractor, that I could trace it. It was in the very centre of the work, and we had to go in a round-about way to get at it.
Q.-To see where it came from?
A. Yes. I have tried to investigate that circumstance, and I cannot find anything. They all deny indignantly they ever said so.
Q.-I may say the Contractor told me, though he denied it afterwards. You think, then, there is something in Mr. Rose's defence, that he did not know?
A.-I am inclined to think so. I thought at first it was very much as it had been represented to me, but after inspecting the ground and failing myself to find it, I was the more inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Q.-You say he cut off the Queen's Road supply?
A. Yes.
Q.-Would that connect with two places, or only one?
A.-Two.
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