several. items and in the general total. I understood from that officer that the first payment from the___ Government Treasury, viz. £75, was for the formation of the Road from the Won Kanqueichung to the estimate Joss House, around the bay, exclusive of grassing and the 34 feet Bridge; my : for the service amounts to £114.13.3, and the Contractor demands £146.17.6. With respect to the above £75, Mr Napier has given details of estimate; Scarth cannot therefore make any comparison, or point out where errors may have arisen, or where the Estimates differ.
As to the latter portion of Road and Bridges, &c., including the grassing of the former part, I am enabled to do so in a certain degree, but not satisfactorily.
First, in the 34 feet Bridge he only allows for 8 inch spars, whereas the smallest spar averages 7 inches diameter, and all the others 10 inches in diameter, and it is in this particular where Estimates differ so materially.
The other items are very nearly in agreement, but the whole difference in that bridge being:
Total difference for Bridges alone £56.3.2. Grassing from the most careful measurements, I calculate amounts to 162.56 squares; Mr. Napier however, gives much more, viz 341.24; he has, no doubt, given this large quantity on the supposition that the whole surface of the slopes from end to end of the road was to be grassed. Earthwork I estimate at 5,314 cubic yards; Mr...