Correspondence of Mission Reports - Letter 78

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Dr* A# J. Brown, l ~ RECE

Board of Foreign Missions, Presb. Church, v 0A
156 Fifth Ive., New York City, U. S. A. JUN 24

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Dear Dr. Brown, 4 Dr.

In accordance with your cablegram of Mfiroh 26 th,
the Station preceded at once with preparations for the erection of
2ew. E. H. Miller’s residence. The Station letter of Jan. 30th
informed the Board that we had received from the sale of the Kon
Dang Kol property the sum 'of thirty-eight thousand yen (¥30,000.00)
which sura included as per Board's agreement eight thousand yen
(¥8,000.00) for the house alone, not including walls, servants'
quarters, well, grading La, and asked permission to build-a house
for Mr. Moore with this sum and also A house for Mr. E. H. Miller
out of the balance. Tho Board cabled to go- on with Mr. Miller's
ouae, but to defer Mr. Moorei, without mentioning a specific eura,
whioh seemed to^ indicate 'that we might use from the eight thousand
yen as much as should be necessary to build Mr. Miller's house
in accordance with plans already adopted by the Mission in 1902,
and acquiesced in by' the Board as being suitable^for an average
missionary residence. Tho sum of ¥0,000.00 was asked for by your
specific instructions ("RESOLVED; That the Korea Mission be
authorised to sell the Kon Dang Kol property according to the
terms set forth in the letter of E. H. Miller to Dr. Brown, dated
Jan. 0th, 1904, provided, However, that due consideration be given
to the 'propable Increase of the cost of replacing the buildings,”)
in order to ensure a sum sufficient to meet the need in the event
of a probable increase in the cost of building due to the war and
its accompanying conditions (See Station letter) Jan. 4th, 1904,

S«Ct. IV., A and B, and your reply of March 9th 1905.).

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A.J.B.,#2.

On submitting specifications as prepared by Kr. Gordon to aa many

contractors as would consider them (Japanese, Chinese and Korean) 9

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we were met with the already anticipated demand for higher price ",
than we had paid for similar buildings last year. The price asked
for the house alone varied from 6,500 to 11,9^4.00 Ten exclusive
of hardware and other things which we 'wwxwx to, supply ourselves, as
we can do so with advantage to the Board. The price contracted
for last/year for similar work was; Dr. Avison’s house account
authorised to ¥6600.00, Sharp’s to 6300.00, Moore to 6250.00; this
making an inevitable increase of ¥500.00 to ¥5,500.00. Tie were
just on the point, of accepting' the lowest hid when your letter of
March 9th (antidating your cablegram) was received, authorising
the use of only ¥7,000.00 for house, grading, walls and servants*
quarters. As the oost of these latter is^practically ¥1,000.00
a this ease. It leaves ¥6,000.00 for the complete house, while
the lowest bid calls for ¥6,500J30 plus the extras to be supplied
by us, a total of ¥7,000.00 for house alone or ¥0,000.00 altogether.
This has thrown us into consternation, because we are prohibited
by your letter from giving a contract, unless we can reduce the
OOBt^one thousand, yen, and this can not be done without making
•ntirely new plans which must be submitted to all the members of
the I'ission Proper ty~Commiln.ee, living in the several ^tations
scattered all over Korea, which^a deforring of the giving of c
contract for at least two months; and this means that the house
con scarcely be begun before the rainy secson and therefore not
be finished till the early summer of 1906.

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JTo add to our difficulty, we have just finished transactions
for the turning over of the old Hospital property including the

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Dr. A. I

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Jacobson

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Dr. A. J. B. «.

Memorial Houee to the Korean government as per agreement of Sept,

?t 1894 and terms laid down by us in Oot. 1904, as a result of which,

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Kr. Clark and the single ladies will be deprived of their houses

wWioh “expected to replaoe at once with the money obtained from

the governments

Knowing that it would oost more to build this year, we asked
for and obtained from these houses exclusive of walls, servants
quarters, etc., the Bums of ¥7,000 and ¥8^00 respectively, but
although we have received money enough to build houses planned in
accordance with the directions of the Mission, we are now by the
contents of yonr lelterpravented from using the money obtained
for the purpose. Had we known that we should have to ouj^.down
the plans to meet the sum now authorised by the Board, we should
not have been justified in asking more than 6,000 Yen for the houses
MUing aa the amount asked was based, on our expectation
that it would all be required for replacing the houses and was
granted by the government because of £he statement of this fact,
and their knowledge of the cost of building here at this time.

•If by ytoir direction in^rour letter of March 9th you mean to
limit the price of house, walls, servants' quarters and grading to
7,000 Yen at this time, it will mean an entire change in the site
and quality of house, and such a decision can be based only on tho
proeumtion that houses already built are too large and too good
while you r comparison of prices in Korea and China too, were you
aware of the adtual facts, would also mean that we are not to build
hers houses in any degree approaching in size and quality those

bUiU in tor comparison we herewith submit some prices /

obtained this weelc from a missionary of the CanW^resbyterian

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Bored, working in Honan, who is visiting Seoul at this time:

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Tagea of oarpentere,
" nason, \

Honan.

.20 sen

.20

Seoul.

¥1.00 to 1.50

1.50

1.00

" Conreon workman /12 .40

Brick, per-H.-Layew-eiae—f 5.00 —Smaller Bize— ¥15.00

tiae, per iOO lba. .25 i.ie

X study of these oolunma will show the exact situation. l£ may be
trgoed that we shou l$ry to build at such a time as this, but the
fsot ie.^we art only replaoing houses sold at this very dear time,
tad the prioelpeoeiTed are large in proportion so that the Board
will b# at no, lose whatever in allowing us even 9,000 Yen for
houses, grading, secants* quarters and walls.

Since thlf letter was started one f'frm with which we were

prioe 5C

.^-ar-- — street from the new Hospital was bought
D'ifew sift' ifeb # ■'J#6?rSLr^66 ^a squire- foot for
of erfoting a etore-houie' on it.

wuii xvtter wae etaru

negotiating bdiraiaed ite prioe" 500 Yen per house,

land Juet hooroes the

the

point we wish to make rs that your direction to put
HO more than 7,000 Yen &r house, grading, walls and servants'
quarters means that in some oases where there is little grading
•ad not BO much walling a better house may be erected than in an-
other caae where there is extensive art grading and a long wall.

This would appear to work an injustice to some in the size and

quality of house.

f _ 1° or<**r to prevent a oomplete block in buildinr operations

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have out out of the ho .uses a number of things and given contracts

up to the amount allowecf by your ~ Letter of March 9th, but~ eB the
housew 1QT,! have no verandah, D0 atorm windows, no shutters, eftc . ,

i n*~ • ■ .ii iii< nm nr^nw*f*fT',*M,*a

the eitusMon here in view

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:W*tatenents(a) price reoeived fren the old housed (b) aotual
^°*t l«8t year, (oj increased oost this year as shown by the enol
•latenent of tenders made in good faith, (d) comparison of priew
l»t$ tad in Chiaai and to allow us to use*suffioienV to complete
the houaea^as par plane approved by you in general and by the
8t#tlon in particular.

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'£(* ft**,

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T.TST OP

liaroh t April 1905. School*

¥10,860. 9,468.

0. Kara £_Co.- ,
(Lat«r_5> off).
<u^ xas Zu«

• op mpputoy.

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9,!

E.HL1. Houoe. Clark. Indies. Total.

(F.S.M.plan)

9,302. ‘

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$*i- Aado.

Tang Ting.

U. Doi (2d hid).— V

du*. Loon^^f

K. Kato.

Km**. • Shin Voksa.

Omori •

Q*j^ Hokariku*

Kin Tun 0

13,320. 11.974.

8,625. 6,730.

11.000. 9,60d’.

8,850. 6,500.

8t00C* same

'16,057.500 11,495.

12.000. 8,000.

9,600. 7,200.

8,850. 7,500.

11,800. 9,000.

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11,707. 11,650.50 44.91J8.50

name same
7,200 7,600

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same same

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