CO885-8 — Page 182

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Reference :-

C.O. 885

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The Agents must, however, retain the discretion as to when they should impose fines upon contractors and of correcting obvious mistakes in requisitions, being careful in all such cases to promptly inform the Colonial Government and to consult them if there is any doubt. They should also as a matter of courtesy answer complaints, even if the matter complained of should have been attended to before the receipt of the complaint. The Colonies resent not having their letters answered, and Jamaica has complained of this more than once.

Price.

I do not think the complaints. on this head come to anything, and the complaints made by Jamaica are rather weakened by their inaccuracy in some instances, see for instance, par. 72 and sqq., and paragraphs 80 and 84 in Crown Agents' letter of 7th April, while some are earlier than the last three years and some are of a trivial nature.

General Remarks.

The position of Messrs. Blakemore is the subject of much criticism. But I do not feel competent to judge whether the employment of a middleman of this kind is the best and cheapest plan, but the new arrange- ment proposed in par. 83, p. 91, will at any rate show more clearly its cost.

As regards the idea of treating the Crown Agents as a private firm and penalising them in respect of any failures of any kind, see pp. 23 and 154, I see nothing in this correspondence which would show such a change to be desirable, if practicable, and it would obviously necessitate a general raising of their charges.

The Crown Agents have been charged with being old fashioned in their methods and with not showing initiative in securing lowest prices, &c., see pp. 48 and 49, 57, 73, and paragraphs 35 and 37, p. 82. These charges the Crown Agents furnish a reply to, and it may be added that recently they have been understaffed and underhoused and have had to carry Oh their business under some consequent difficulty, and that it is perhaps unreasonable to expect much initiative when a Department's time is more than taken up with the necessary current work, since for initiative there should be a reserve of time and thought. It has also been a subject of complaint that local needs are not considered (p. 154), and that the Crown Agents are sometimes too exacting in their requirements. I think there is something in this latter complaint. Sometimes a Colony urgently needs an article but cannot afford to pay for one of a high class ; it may be a bridge, it may be a railway, and the Colony goes without because it cannot afford the high class article the Crown Agents consider necessary. It is, I believe, often better in such caseS 90 have an inkeldi article which may not last so long. >Fectld give instemons óf what I mean bát do not wish toʻnda čuo -this mainatu/. Mrz Chamberlade has,

· moreover, himself noticed this in one of his. minutes,

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There is only one other query I would raise, I do not put it forward as a suggestion, as the fact that what I refer to has never been done argues that there is some sufficient reason against it.

Would it not, however, do something to increase Colonial confidence in the Crown Agents if they communicated to the Colonial Governments annually

for their information a Balance Sheet and a list of their staff, with salaries, &c., and some account of their work.

The Colonies have, I am sure, no idea of, for in- stance, the large amount of unremunerative work done in the payment of salaries, pensions, &c. I have myself met Colonials who believed that all the profits of the Crown Agents' business went into the pockets of the Crown Agents.

Lastly, it might be as well to communicate con- fidentially to the Colonies for information, not for reply, the two Crown Agents' letters of 7th April and 30th July, or a Memorandum based upon them stating at the same time what is proposed or suggested to be done, or perhaps this print might be 'sent out as it stands, only with any corrections the 'Crown Agents may desire to make, and there are corrections they would no doubt be glad to have the opportunity of making. See paragraphs 7 and 10 of Mr. Green's minute.

A. A. P.

October 7th.

Mr. Lucas,

upon

'the 'corre-

I have no remarks to make spondence. The experience of my department is that as a rule the Crown Agents do their work well, sometimes very well indeed, and sometimes not well. This state of things would probably not be improved under any other system.

Mr. Green's suggestion that the Crown Agents should issue an annual commendation of their own proceedings, in which all records of success would be brought prominently forward, and nothing would be said of failures, may appeal to the Crown Agents. But it would make the dissatisfied Colonies bis- pheme and might prompt them to issue companion volumes, It would be exasperating, too, for a Governor, who was complaining of the supply of faulty rails, to be assured that the Transvaal got their stationery in record time.

October 22nd.

Mr. Lucas,

C. S.

I have very little to add to Mr. Green's minute. So far as the Colonies in this Department are con- cerned, Malta (whose dealings, however, with the

• Nos. 34 and 38 in Miscellaneous No. 142.

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