The Press., 1883-12-27
iences'' exposed in The Tribune.

dences" exposed in The Tribune. F When the department estimate that . contract for regulating Sixty second st. will require 820 cubic wards of earth sxca- vation and ], ,090 cubic yards of filling. and it turns out that there gre 2, 72O yards of earth excavation and no filling, it happens that D. K. Gallagher bids the enormous price of &5 50 . yard for earth excavation and offers to do the filing for nothing, with the result that Gallagher receives three times the amount of his bid When the estimates on another job Il for (, ,OOO feet of lumber and 61, 900 are used-or at least pald for-it is aH interesting coincidence that Patrick Mulhollaud, the successful competitor, bid on lumb,r S5 thousand more than other contractors. It is coin cidence. too, that the same Patrick Null holland bid an extravagant price on rock excavation for sewer, and that the rock sO far exec ded the estimate that he ob- talned on the whole 50 per ceut more than hls co,itract. When the department esti- mated 600 cubic yards of rock on the West End Avenue sewer, ai,d there proved to be ], ,376 yards, It cha4csd that Abraham Dowdney had the contrac at the extrav agant pllce of "A yard but Dowdney WAS to furnish lumber at the low price of $lU thousand, aud instead of the 1000 feet ca.led tor by the estimates only 869 feet were used. lii contract No. 5, 724 the TUCK Nas estimated at 1000 cubic yards, aud only l6l cubic yards were taken out, while artn excavation estimated at 2. 500 cubic yards ran up to :, 800, Vincent Clark odd:y enough s. ting the contract at ceut for r.cA aud 91 cents for earth. In the N1uety elghth-st. improvement the earth excavation was estilnat. at only 500 cubic yaros, bu, amounted to 3, l2O cubic yards, aud It cnancs d that Michael Finn had tils contract at the stupendous price o1 $7 9O yard, while the rock excavation, j wnlcn Finn was to do for 35 cents yard, turned out 10 be about half the estimate. 50 h Thonlas F. Kane's Fourth-ave. con- tract, where the rock proved to be less than Aah tile estimate and the earth more than doubi8, it happened that the con- tractor was to get $l 62} for shovelling earth, Ahd Cents for blasting rock. The uutinlsned Contracts of James Reilly and John Brady wlli show similar coiucidences N hen the returns are complete. The worst ot them Is t.4at famous job Oil which Brady gets $o cube yard for excavatlng earth a4ld 8 quarter ot a cent for rock, and has guessed So well at tue tserrors" iu the es-
 ama;es that on & contract for $15,6 he Ill realize about SIP, ,OOO.
 We nave publish g, .alyss of eighteen or twenty ot ,h. SC ''colncideu ces," besides tables ot numerous contracts, fraudulent on thelr face but uol yet finished and t1ere are more still to be exposed. That they cannot be accidental needs no argu- nient. Yet the Commissioner of public works has the effro,.tery to say that there IS no fraud in his office, aod hat if his en- glneers habA Atuaily make mistakes for the psaefit of the ring contractors, and never against them, 1t Is only because they can- not tell the charact. r of the work they survey without additional appropriation which he has asks d for 1SG,