in the despatch of the Secretary of State consist of letters which have passed between
394 article,
Mr R. A. Gibbons,
and Mr O.
C.
King with
4
and to use a
When examined.
Cement manufactured
Surveyor
General
between the
stated that he had
made
too
the
quality
object
in
respect to sending samples of cement clinker to Hongkong.
3. We have heard from Mr Orange (whose written statement we annex),
and also
The Hon: The Acting Colonial Secretary The Surveyor General,
"
O. P. Shater
Mr H. O. Wilson.
No charge is
but
so
and
is made against Mr Orange, that
a government official had about the
time he asked for the cement clinker in the correspondence mentioned, made
certain allegations respecting quality of the cement supplied by Messrs Robins & Co.,
we presume that the imputation against him is that he was endeavouring by false complaint to induce the Hongkong Government to
discontinue the use
of that firm's
client
and
complaint against
only
of the cement, and that his forwarding Mr Orange's note was to call the attention of the Crown Agents to what appeared to be
a deterioration in the later
5.
consignments.
deterioration
In his letter to the Honourable the Colonial Secretary, dated the 7th June 1886, Mr Price states:
"In consequence of a visible
"change in the appearance of the later
"consignments of Robin's cement, I instructed
"the Resident Engineer to make personally
"certain experimental tests with Robin's
"cement of different dates of arrival".
Mr Price stated that from
the nature and extent of the
works it was
of the utmost importance that
the cement throughout should be of