Enclosure L
1800
REOP
REGE 9 NOV 03/
531
!
The Hongkong Telegraph
HONGKONG, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1883.
IN Saturday's Gazette appear several Government notifications inviting tenders for certain local works of some magnitude. The reclamation of Causeway Bay and the construction of a sea wall, swing bridge, basin and slips for launches, &c., at the Kowloon Police Station, are undertakings of special importance to the community, and will entail a very heavy expenditure of public funds. Why, then, does the custom prevail in the Colonial Secretary's office of confining the advertisements inviting public tenders for these works to the semi-privacy of the columns of the Government Gazette, a publication which is seldom seen outside the government offices? Surely it is to the public interest to give these matters all the publicity possible! And it is evidently to the private interest of some person or persons to keep them as secret as circumstances will allow. Why this should be the case we will not even venture to hazard an opinion; but it may interest Governor Bowen and Mr. W. H. Marsh to know that the tongue of public report does not scruple to assert that these contracts are "kept dark," manipulated and arranged to suit the devices of certain officials—who for the present shall be nameless. All contracts for public works should be extensively advertised in the local newspapers, both foreign and Chinese, and an independent and reliable board of trustworthy heads of departments should be appointed to decide all tenders on their merits, without interference or advice from the chief of the particular department under whose auspices the works are to be carried out. We are quite sure that "the honourable the Surveyor-General" could (and would, if requested to do so) give His Excellency a deal of valuable information on this subject. Mr. Price is reported to be a determined opponent of the jobbery which is said to prevail so extensively amongst the subordinate members of the staff of the Surveyor-General's department. The subordinate members alluded to do not scruple to retaliate by asserting sub rosa that the honourable member likes to monopolise all "the good things" to his own cheque. O tempora! O mores!
Enclosure L
1800
REOP
REGE 9 NOV 03/
531
!
The Hongkong Telegraph
HONGKONG, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1883.
IN Saturday's Gazette appear several Govern- ment notifications inviting tenders for certain local works of some magnitude. The reclama- tion of Causeway Bay and the construction of a sea wall, swing bridge, basin and slips for launches, &c., at the Kowloon Police Station, are undertakings of special importance to the community, and will entail a very heavy ex- penditure of public funds. Why, then, does the custom prevail in the Colonial Secretary's office of confining the advertisements inviting public tenders for these works to the semi-privacy of the columns of the Government Gazette, a publica- tion which is seldom seen outside the government; offices? Surely it is to the public interest to give these matters all the publicity possible! And it is evidently to the private interest of some person or persons to keep them as secret as circumstances will allow. Why this should be the case we will not even venture to hazard an opinion; but it may ! interest Governor Bowen and Mr. W. H. Marsh to know that the tongue of public report does not scruple to assert that these contracts are "kept dark," manipulated and arranged to suit the devices of certain officials-who for the pre- sent shall be nameless. All contracts for public works should be extensively advertised in the local newspapers, both foreign and Chinese, and an independent and reliable board of trustworthy heads of departments should be appointed to decide all tenders on their merits, without interference or advice from the chief of the particular department under whose auspices the works are to be carried out. We are quite sure that "the honourable the Surveyor-General " could (and would, if requested to do so) give His Excellency a deal of valuable information on this subject. Mr. Price is reported to be a determined opponent of the jobbery which is said to prevail so extensively amongst the subordinate members of the staff of the Surveyor-General's department. The subordinate members alluded to do not scruple to retaliate by asserting sub rosd that the honourable member likes to mono- polise all "the good things" to his own check. O tempora! O mores!
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