Thursday, March 9, 1911
A "Striking" Clock.
This is the tale of a clock, in the words of Hon, William Pugsley, "a striking clock." In Lunenburg, N. S. the public building erected by the Dominion Government lacked a clock. There was a hole where the timepiece should be, and, as Mr. Pugsley explained, the hole was a constant reminder that the town still had a claim on the Government. The request went to Ottawa and, as Lunenburg, is a good Liberal constituency, the demand did not fall upon deaf ears.
Mr. Pugsley decided to supply Lunenburg’s need. The Public Works Department has had some practice at buying and installing clocks, but Lunenburg was favored above the ordinary. While other places might be able to conduct public affairs quite decently and in order with a clock costing a few hundred dollars, no such plebeian timepiece would do for the constituency that had sent Mr. A. K. McLean to Ottawa as a valiant member of the "Blocking Brigade." A $1,600 clock for Lunenburg noting less.
Now this is the sad part of it, that though it got a $1,600 clock, there is some doubt about it. Mr. Pugsley had a friend down in Halifax to whom he went, told him to draw up the specifications for the timepiece, and name his price. The Halifax man did not manufacture the clock, he simply bought it; in other words, he was the middleman. The clock was made in Germany.
In the Public Works Department there are scores of trained architects and other specialists on building. The purchase and installation of a clock should not be a serious problems for them to tackle. But this is not the Pugsley system. The middleman had to have his share in the transaction. Mr. Pugsley said it was a "striking clock." It was likewise a striking transaction. – St. John Standard.