Sessional_Paper_1884 — Page 231

Appendix pp. 81, 120, 121.

Appendix

pp. 100, 101, 145, I 146, 148,

177-9, 185-8, 215, 230.

(vii)

the Government, and, with one exception, believe the prices paid on the whole to be just and reasonable, and, quality considered, not higher than those paid by private persons. The one witness whose opinion forms an exception to this general concurrence of testimony regards the cost of work done by the Depart- ment as about five per cent in excess of that incurred by private firms, and gives as the main reason that Government Work everywhere is naturally somewhat dearer than that undertaken privately.

e. No evidence has been forthcoming of a single case of a bribe having been accepted

by an Officer of the Public Works Department during the administration of the Honourable Mr. PRICE, or, in his absence, during that of the Acting Sur- veyor General, Mr. BOWDLER. Two allegations of bribery made to a witness who appeared before the Commission have been carefully investigated, with the result that, in the one case the Chinese Builder who is stated to have said that he paid money to the Inspector of Water-works for allowing water to remain laid on when it ought to have been cut off, has, on coming before the Com- mission denied that he ever made the statement; and in the other the charge was ascertained by the Commission to have been made not only on no authority, but to have had no foundation in fact and to be wholly false. The particulars relating to these two cases will be found fully detailed in the appendix. It is unquestionable nevertheless, according to the evidence before the Commis- sion, that statements unfavourably affecting the character of a certain class of the Officers of the Public Works Department have been in circulation in the Colony. So far as the Commission has been able to trace them, these state- ments, with the two exceptions referred to above, have not been specifically made in point of person, circumstance, or time; and appear to have been based upon second hand general allegations not entitled to credence, considering that they have not borne the test of enquiry. All the witnesses who have spoken to such unauthenticated rumours have positively denied that they themselves have had any knowledge of corrupt transactions.

9. Almost all the native Contractors usually employed by the Government have been examined, and one and all state that they have no complaint to make against the Public Works Department, excepting that payment of their bills is sometimes unduly delayed, and that until recently they were compelled to take part payment to the extent of ten per cent of their claims in copper coins, upon the sale of which the loss was about ten per cent. This irregular practice has now ceased, and was occasioned, as the Com- Appendix mission is informed, by the necessities of the Treasury to pass into circulation a super- 91, 93-7, abundant supply of this subsidiary coinage. As far as the Commission can ascertain, no 158. pecuniary advantage accrued to any individual from this arrangement. As might be

pp. 80,

137, 146,

"

The Commission was unable to call for the attendance of any Contractors until close upon the Chinese New Year, by which time some of them had left for the mainland.