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( 116 )
Some time ago there was a talk about the roads not having a proper propor- tion of cement and other material ?
A-I cannot say.
Q-You don't think it is carelessness?
A-I don't think so.
By Mr. Thurburn.—I understand you to say that you can't do such good work as the Government owing to the inferior class of supervision you have got?
A-Yes. We have difficulty in getting qualifiel men to look after the work. We have to do our own supervision as much as possible.
Q-Supposing the Government were to ask you and other architects for tenders for large buildings, but they wished to carry it out themselves by their own supervision, what remuneration would induce you to send in a good plan?
A-It depends a good deal on what amount of work you have got in hand, whe- ther it is worthwhile to go in for competition or not. At home, unless it is a fairly big job, if you have got plenty of other work on hand, it is a principle not to go in for the chance of getting it. It takes a vast amount of time. Here a man has to do a great deal of work himself. At home you can get a great deal of clerks to work it out entirely; here we have to work it out ourselves. If it is a public building, or any- thing that is a credit to carry out, then we go in for it a good deal on that score.
Q-I don't mean whether you get it. What remuneration would you do it for on chance ?
A-It all depends what we have on hand at that particular time. You might offer us in ordinary times what we might think was ample, but sometimes our hands. are full, and we would not care to take it at any price.
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1
A. DENISON, Architect, sworn:-
By the Chairman.-How long have you been in Hongkong?
A-1 have been here for twenty years.
Q-And during that time you have been entirely connected with engineering work? You are an engineer, yourself and you first came out to a firm of engineers as one of their assistants ?
A-Yes Mr. DANBY.
Q-And afterwards you set up in practice on your own account?
A-I was seven years with Mr. DANBY, and have been fourteen years on my own
account.
Q-And, in the course of your profession, you are brought into very intimate contact with the Public Works Department, are you not?
A-Yes.
Q-We should like to know whether that contact has suggested anything to you in the way of improvement so far as that Department is concerned ?
A
I don't know that my relations have been such that I would have much knowledge of the work of the Department.