Please inform me whether I am correct in this assumption, and also to state with reference to M. Price's observations (on the subject promised) vide despatch no. 404 of the 26th Oct. 1885.
5. In regard to this tender enclosed in June despatch under acknowledgment, I am informed that the Agents invited competition among the Firms, including this firm on their list. Messrs. White, whose quotations have for years been exceptionally high, were on the present occasion [the lowest?] (see 20884 > 543) the lowest, & in view of the Surveyor General's preference for Messrs. White's Cement, the order was entrusted to them, and they are under contract to deliver 1500 barrels a month common from July last, so that by the end of last month the Agents ought to have shipped 6000 barrels. However, they have actually only shipped 750 barrels, the remainder having on repeated tests failed to fulfil the conditions of the specification; and if there had not been large running contracts with other...