The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-29 00:00:00

NO. XII.-STANDING CONTRACTS.

My Lords also desire that all standing contracts be
opened to public competition, upon due notice, at stated
intervals, not exceeding three or four years. Whenever
this is done, the fullest information is to be given to the
contractors as to the average quantities of each article
required annually during the previous contract, my
Lords considering that the uncertainty of the liability
tends, at present, to enhance the prices.
A new rate book of the value of stores is to be pre-
pared for the use of the yards, or the present rate book
is to be revised, and to be corrected arinu:-lly, by the aid
of the most recent contracts and of the price current,
which is to be supplied weekly to all the storekeepers.
H. G. WARD.

NO. XIII.-TRIENRIAL SURVEY.

My Lords having considered the present practice in
the dockyards, with regard to the charge of stores, con-
cur with the committee of revision in thinking that the
amounts given by the storekeeper's ledger should be
checked, periodically, by actual survey.
My Lords are aware that the heavy expense with
which surveys have hitherto been attended has in
duced successive Boards of Admiralty to limit them to a
charge of storekeepers by death, or removal. But, on
the other hand, they see that no private establishment
could go on for eighteen or twenty years without taking
stock, and they ascribe to the want of a similar regula-
tion in her Majesty's dockyards both the discrepancies
that have universally arisen between the results of the
survey, when held, and those given by the ledger, and
the want of proper economical arrangements for the
stowage and preservation for timber.
A periodical survey will force upon each superin-
tendent the necessity of seeing that the whole of the
timber, thickstuff, and plank under his charge is pro-
perly class -d and stacked, and the quantities duly re-
corded, or he will be held justly responsible for the delay
caused by his neglect of these precautions. There will
then be no difficulty in making the survey by the help or
the timber-inspector's register, in which the marks cut upon
the butts of each piece of timber, when received, are to
be entered, and the surveying officers will only have to
ascertain that the quantities in each stack correspond
with those registered, or when timber has been drawn
from the stack or shed, to note the differences between
the remainder and the original entry.
My Lords are therefore pleased to direct that a general
survey be held in all the dockyards, of timber, and every
other article in store, to commence on the Ist of April
next; that its duration be limited to three months—pro-
vision being made in the estimates for this purpose.
That the superintendents in each yard be directed to
make the most strenuous exertions during the ensuing
quarter, and before the establishments are abated, to
prepare the yards for this purpose, by bringing the
stores, and particularly the timber, into better order ;
and that the storekeepers be instructed to begin the sur-
vey in their own departments, when their stocks are
lowest, by calling in the aid of the store receiver, and be
informed that the results, when certified by him to the
superintendent, will be considered as the datum line,
from which the general survey will begin.
Another general survey will take place on the Ist of
April, 1852, and once in three years from that time
forwards, and my Lords expect that the superintendents
will give every facility to the introduction of the new
system, which my Lords believe to be essential to good
order, to sound economy, and, consequently, to the best
interests of the naval service, by so shaping the arrange-
ments of their yards as to make them correspond with
the change now ordered.

H. G. WARD.

MODE OF CONDUCTING SUR-VEY.

The storekeeper-general is to prepare, and submit to
the board, a plan for conducting the survey, which is to
comrn•nce on the Ist of April next, in the most effec-
tive, expeditious, and economical manner.

H. G. WARD.
NO. XIV.-STOREREEPER•GENERAL TO VISIT YARDS

ANNUALLY.

My Lords are pleased to direct that the storekeeper-
gcneral shall resume his annual visit to the dockyards,
where he is to take cognizance, personally, of all matters
connected with his department, reporting to the board,
upon those points, which he may uecm deserving of
special attention.

H. G. WARD.

NO. XY.-MODE OF PAYMENT.

My Lords are pleased to direct that the mode of pay-
ment in all the dockyards shall be assimilated, the pay-
ment by distributors being discontinued, and the factory
system of individual payments adopted.
11. G. WARD.
NO. XVI.—MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS—LACTO-