There are few greater contributors to the revenue of the County than I am. I am accused of having favored a particular contractor —allowed him to get out of do ng certaiu things he shsu'd have done under his specifications. The faots of the matter are, simply, that the slid con tractor took a large job of formation and gravelling too low—as many contractors do. He was to take a portion of the gravel required from a certain pit some two miles distant, but he found gravel, he asserted, that was as good nearer at hand, and he offered to put on—as he ould afford to—a much greater depth of gravel if he were allowed to use the nearer pit I presented bis memorial to the Council, and moved that he be allowed to use gravel from the nearer pit if, in the opinion of the Engineer, it were as good as the other. I did t'lis because the man would have been ruined over the j ob had the letter of the specifications been adhered to, and would have been forced to give it up. I exp'ained the matter fully to the Council. The job is not yet finished, and I do not know what arrangement has been come to between the Engineer and the contractor. Rut not one of those who tendered for the same job did bo at a price that would have p-iid to bring gravel two miles. Perhaps " Miner" w-.is one of them. If so, X feel certain he would have asked for the same concession, aud I am certain I would have been just as ready to move in the matter in his case as in the other. It isn't the first time the contractor I ana accused of favoring has taken work ton low, and, to show that iu the above case my sympathies were not allowed play because the money did not come out of my pocket, let me state that he carried out No. jl con tract for the St Bathuns Channel Company— that,his tender was too low to carry out the work as specified, and that I advocated aud got the other shareholders of the Company to agree to relieve him of work amounting to at least £3OO, or he would have come to grief over it. As it was it did not pay. 