523
connection with the indent to which the Governor's dispatch refers is not without significance. The order being of considerable magnitude, we invited competition among the firms on our list, including Fearnley's White. To our surprise, this firm, whose quotations have for years been exceptionally high, on this occasion, in company with the Burnham firm and Messrs. Burge & Barrows, was the lowest among the three equal firms. I have preferred to have given the order to either of the other two firms rather than to Messrs. White, of whose cement we have little experience. But in view of the Surveyor General's preference for Messrs. White's cement, we entrusted the order to them, with this result: they are under contract to deliver 1500 barrels a month, commencing in July, so that, at this date, we ought to have shipped 6000 barrels. We have actually shipped only 750 barrels in all, the remainder having, on repeated tests, failed to fulfil the conditions of the Specification.