379
In
despatch that "no immediate action was necessary",
these circumstances the control of the local Government
over the Chief Resident Engineer and the exercise of its
discretion in judging of the work and of calling in any
expert advice it may desire appear to be reduced to a min-
imum.
5.
I may add in reference to the
CA
32972
4th. paragraph of the letter of the Consulting Engineers
of the 2nd. September, 1908 that the Chief Resident Engin-
eer was called upon to make a statement with regard to
the bridges and to give his opinion regarding the cracks
(a) first verbally by me in the presence of Mr. Griffin
(b) on Mr. Chatham's report and (c) on the report of the
Committee. In reference to paragraph 5 the Consulting
Engineers are under a misapprehension in thinking that
any orders whatever have been given to the Contractors or
sub-contractors regarding their contract work except through
the Chief Resident Engineer. The Contractor in question
was employed by Messrs. Leigh and Orange and not by the
em-
Chief Resident Engineer. It is a fact that he was
ployed to make the borings for the Cormittee but he is
also employed on other works by the Director of Public
Works.
I do not think that the position of the Chief
Resident Engineer has been in any way discredited by the
action.