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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
ساسانس
C.O. 885
138
A. In that case we should get out special men from home. Q-And, by doing that, do you think you could get the work carried out as efficiently and as cheaply as the Government does at present? A.—I think I said we should get it at the same price. Q-You don't think you could get it done more cheaply?
-We might get it done more cheaply: I daresay we would.
-How could that be? You, say you would have to get extra overseers from home, and then there would be the commission to pay to the private firm in addition to the original cost?
A. Yes, but the commission would not amount to any more than the cost of Government supervision.
Q-You don't think it would?
A. No, I don't think so. You must also take what the rent of Government offices would be, for instance. It all counts. All these things would come into the cost of supervision by Government of the work. It is not only the pay of the engineer. Q-But then we have a Government staff already. Can you point out where the saving would come in?
A.---We might be able to get it done cheaper.
Q.-You think it would be cheaper?
A. The probability is we should. I don't say it would be done cheaper.
By Colonel BROWN. Is your firm to receive the contract to carry out the new Reservoir at Kowloon?
A. I believe so.
Q-Your firm would plan the work?
A.---Yes.
And prepare estimates for it? Yes.
Q-Make all the drawings?
A. Yes.
-Then obtain tenders for it?
A-The Government would.
Q-You will obtain the contractors?
A. I shall obtain contractors. All the tenders will be submitted to the Director of Public Works.
Q-But you, instead of the Director of Public Works, obtain the tenderers? A. Yes.
-And you expect the work will be cheaper than if done directly under the Director of Public Works?
A. Yes, I think it will be cheaper,
Q. The prices are rising, are they not?
A. They have been rising for some years. I don't think they have risen for the last several months, but, in the last three or four years, they have risen considerably.
By the CHAIRMAN.-Do you think this scheme, as entrusted to your firm, will
be carried out more cheaply, notwithstanding the fact that you have to receive your commission?
A. Yes, I should say so.
Q. Why will it be cheaper?
A. Comparing it with the Tytam works, for instance, and the prices ruling at that time. We have gone into the estimates very fully and it struck me it would be very considerably cheaper than the same class of work at Tytam.
Q-Supposing the Director of Public Works then had called for tenders in the same way, would he have found them' cheaper?
A. I think so.
Q. Is it owing to the fact that the prices are somewhat different now from what they were when the Tytam works were undertaken?
A. I think that has something to do with it, but the tendency is to tender more cheaply for a private firm.
By Mr. THURBURN.-Who does the overseeing? Is he a Government overseer or your own?'
A.-The overseers will be paid by Government, but they will be under our orders. They will take orders from us.
Q-But do they belong to the Government staff of supervision?'
139
A.--I think we shall have to get special men when they are recommended by the Public Works Department.
Q.-You will have to get special men?
A-We will get men specially for that work.
By Mr. MASTER.----Do you think, with regard to the works carried out by Govern- ment, that there is unnecessary expenditure, unnecessary cost in the way of finish? Do the Public Works Department put unnecessarily expensive work into buildings that would answer as well with less expensive work in them-say, any particular work?
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A-I don't think so. All the works I know of being done by the Public Works Department, I don't think they are unnecessarily expensive. I think all Government work should be well done.
Q-Between that and throwing money away in finishing off work extraordinarily
well?
A.--No, I don't think so.
Q-Building a bridge to carry a waggon, which has only to carry a ricksha? A. I don't think it is unnecessarily expensive.
By the CHAIRMAN.-Is there anything else you could suggest?
A.--One thing that has always struck me is that the cost of home-made material always appears to be much more than the cost of the material we get. For instance, the iron work for the Central Market. I was told the price per ton of it, and I was getting out similar things at the time which were far less.
Q-Can you give us the exact figures for the iron-work you were getting at that
time?
A. Yes.
Q-Because it would be very simple for us to obtain the cost of the iron-work for the Central Market and compare the prices. Will you kindly obtain the informa- tion for us?
A. Yes. I had columns and roof work at the same time, and I asked casually what price they were paying, and it struck me, at the time, as being much more than I was paying.
By Mr. MASTER-Is it paid for by the ton?
A-Iron columns are paid for by the ton. It is made in England. Iron roof work is made by two or three firms who scarcely do anything else.
By the CHAIRMAN.-What you mean to suggest is that Government material is
too costly as compared with the material supplied to private firms?
-Yes.
-Have you any other instances?
A.-These wrought iron steel girders. Almost any time, during the last ten or twelve years when they have been very much used in the Colony, I am nearly sure we get them out at two-thirds of the Government price.
By Mr. MASTER~Do you suggest any reason why the Government pay more? A. I don't know why, unless they go to some special firm who know they are supplying the Hong-Kong Government and think they have a monopoly.
By the CHAIRMAN.-The Government gets all its supplies through the Crown Agents and it would be only fair to them to compare all the figures and to have this matter thoroughly investigated. Have you any other suggestion?
A. Nothing further strikes me at the moment..
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Q-Do you think it is a good system to get all stores through the Crown Agents? Evidence A. That is rather a difficult matter to answer.
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Q--Do you think it would be advisable to deal direct with different people in D. Wood, England, or even here locally, and get goods from them?
A-As far as that goes, the whole thing would be in the nature of an experiment, it would induce competition of course. As it is competition enters into it because the Crown Agents, to begin with, give the different firmis an opportunity of tendering.
Q-But if the Crown Agents are too lazy to compare different people's prices, the chances are that you are paying too dear for your stores?
· Appendix No. 19 : see p. 143.
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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