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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
8
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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No. 35.
FALKLAND ISLANDS.
GOVERNOR GREY-WILSON to MR. CHAMBERLAIN,
(Received May 7, 1902.)
(No. 30.)
SIR,
Government House, Stanley, April 2, 1902. LHAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your circular despatch of the 1st of June last, with reference to the commercial business of the Crown Agents.
2. Although at times there appears to be some unnecessary delay in complying with requisitions, I am bound to admit that on the whole the very diversified, frequently trivial, and often difficult to execute requirements of this Government are executed with commendable care and accuracy.
3. I would, however, point out that the prices paid by the Crown Agents fo many articles in frequent demand by all Colonies are often in excess of the prices pand by the War Office and Admiralty for similar stores. Is it not possible that those De partments would consent so to frame their contracts as to permit the Crown Agents to Indent upon Imperial Contractors for such articles as are quoted in the Naval and Military "ate books" and included in current contracts?
4. I venture also to suggest that if Colonial Governments were permitted to purchase direct, from any one of the Co-operative Societies, articles, especially those involving artistic taste, required for Government House, Offices, &c., it would relieve the Crown Agents of a considerable amount of extremely irritating and troublesome work, and at the same time dispose of the very prevalent impression that designs and patterns unsaleable in England are deemed suitable for the Colonies,
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No. 36.
I have. &c..
W. GREY-WILSON,
Governor.
EXTRACTS FROM A REPORT ON THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT OF HONG KONG, DATED HONG KONG, March 29, 1902. (Received in Colonial Office, June 9, 1902.)
CROWN AGENT SYSTEM.
D
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22. In view of the statements made regarding the Crown Agents, the Com mission thought it only fair to all parties concerned that those statements should be thoroughly investigated, though the Crown Agent system was not referred to it for. inquiry and report.
Appendix No. 22 contains a list showing the various firms that supplied goods and materials to this Colony, during the last ten years, through the Crown Agents. The variety of firms on the list shows that the field of selection for purchases is a wide one and not too circumscribed, as has been suggested.
Mr. Denison in his evidence stated that he knew an instance in which he was purchasing iron for his clients at a much cheaper rate than that at which it was being supplied at the same time to the Colony by the Crown Agents.
From the correspondence in Appendix No. 19, it appears that Mr. Denison is mistaken and that, as a matter of fact, the Crown Agents were supplying the Colony with iron at a cheaper rate than that at which Mr. Denison obtained it for his clients.
It was also stated by a member of the Commission that the Crown Agents had forwarded a consignment of cement to Hong-Kong without having received any requisition in the usual way from the Government.
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The documents in Appendix No. 23 show that the cement in question was duly ordered by the Director of Public Works, Mr. Ormsby, who appears to have forgotten that he had sent his order and to have misled others into believing that the Crown Agents had forwarded the cement without authority.
Those witnesses who have had practical experience of the Crown Agent system, including Mr. Chadwick, all speak highly of it, and the Commission is of opinion that it works well and that it would not be easy to substitute for it any other system that would work so satisfactorily.
I should like to know of A.
By the CHAIRMAN.-It has been suggested that the Government, instead of Evidence undertaking its own work, should let it out to private firms. your opinion with regard to that suggestion especially as regards its cheapness and Denison. efficiency.
A-1 should say a great many of the works might be let out to private firms. Q.---And if they were would they be done more cheaply?
A-I think so.
Take, for instance, the Jubilee Road. Mr. Ormsby said the Jubilee Road could not be made in less than two-and-a-half years, and that it could not be made for less than $200,000, that is, the first section. We found no difficulty in making a contract for fifteen months for less than half what he said it would cost. I believe the road is now approaching completion, and the contract time is July. There have been one or two parts that have been delayed owing to having to go through private property. Mr. Ormsby told me privately that he had gone into the question of cost very carefully.
Q.—And the road has been constructed in the manner he intended when he formed his estimate!
Q.
The specifications and plans were all submitted to him.
And it was on these that he made his estimate ! A-Well, on similar ones.
Q-How do you compare Government work with private work! speaking, do you think that Government work is better?
Generally
A-No, I don't. In some circumstances. I don't see how there could be any distinction. In the case of public works an estimate is made of the work, and it is carried out. Tenders are got in under certain specifications, but, in the case of private property, if an owner says, "Well, I don't want this class of work. I can't afford to pay $20,000 for a house: 1 want a house of the same size costing $15,000,”--- he
gets it. There are cases where an owner wants good, work put in—the best work— and he gets the best work.
Q. Then you think that the Government wants the best work, and the private owner is not so desirous of the best work!
A. Yes, I think so in these cases only.
By Mr. THURBURN.--You mean to say that your firm are quite as capable of carrying out this good work as the Government !
-Yes.
By the CHAIRMAN-Whom do you employ as overseers?
A-We have as a rule five or six overseers and we always keep the best men on, and the bad men we simply send away,
Q. Where do you recruit them from?
A-They are generally sent to us-sometimes by clergymen and benevolent societies. They are men who have had similar work, and they go from place to place. Rev. Mr. France is a great man for recommending men to us.
Q. They are casual visitors to the Colony and are picked up locally? A-They go from Colony to Colony. If they hear that Hong-Kong has a lot of work on, they come away from the place they are in if trade is not so brisk.
Q. We have been told that private firms find difficulty in securing eflicient over- seers owing to the class of overseers they employ not being satisfactory?
A-As a rule we look after our own work personally to a great extent. Per- sonally, I go around visiting it every day.
Q.--If there is difficulty about efficient supervision even now in connection with the works you have to carry out, how would you get over the difficulty, supposing you had to carry out Government works?
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