680
dredging
which he now admits it does not and the
difference between what he describes as a 'temporary' or
a 'permanent' wall on identical sites and only 1,415 feet
long was to involve a cost of $562,000! The proposals of
the Consulting Engineers which were in fact identical
with scheme (d) were perfectly obvious to myself and to
the Colonial Secretary when we saw the Consulting Engineers'
letter and plan ourselves and the arrival of the cross
section of wall on 4th October, 1907, (despatched 6th
September, 1907) finally disposed of the question. It is
clear that if such methods are adopted by the Chief
Resident Engineer it becomes extremely difficult for the
Government to exercise any proper control of expenditure or
to decide with full knowledge the questions submitted to
it, or to place that complete confidence in the Chief
Resident Engineer which as Mr. Lyttelton's Memorandum
points out is essential to the success of the system, while
on the other hand the Consulting Engineers are misled by
letters which represent the Government action as obstructive
or interfering. In this connection I may also remark
that I am informed that Mr. Eves is very unpopular with
his subordinates a condition of things which militates
against efficiency and progress.
9.