312.
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special character to men of the class usually filling the appointment of Director of Public Works in a Colony, but that such works should be placed in the hands of a specially qualified man selected by the Consulting Engineers and acting under their direct instructions so that if any miscarriage or miscalculation should occur in connection with the work there shall be no question as to where the responsibility for the mistake rests.
11.
For the above reasons we would strongly recommend that the conduct of the Kowloon Railway works should be left under the undivided control of the Consulting Engineers and of their specially selected Resident Engineer, although it would of course always be open to the Governor to seek the advice for his own personal information of the Director of Public Works if at any time he should be of opinion that the Railway works were not being constructed in the best possible manner. For our part however we are disposed to think that there has in the past been too much interference on the part of the Governor and of the Director of Public Works in the conduct of these particular works and that a good deal of the friction which has apparently occurred has been due to such interference.
12. I would add that we have always understood that the experience of the Colonial Office in connection with the rebuilding of the Praya wall at Hong Kong some years since in which case the Colonial Government was allowed to do the work by its Public Works Department, instead of through the instrumentality of a specially selected Resident Engineer, was to the effect that a mistake had been made in agreeing to the representations of the Colonial Government and that it was undesirable that any similar arrangement should be agreed to in the future (see Gov.H.K.No.213 27.July 1898)
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