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Compente's
63 Barrow Ro
Streatham
render every possible assistance to the experte after their arrival.
3.
Without more precise information than is at present available, it is not possible to estimate with any degree of accuracy the cost of this preliminary work. It is not likely to exceed $1000 and may be considerably less than that sum. In any case the amount debited to Imperial Funds will be the actual cost to this Goverment plus 10% overhead charges.
4.
With regard to the second paragraph of your despatch under reference alluding to the three alternative methods of carrying out the constructional work that have been suggested, I forward herewith for the consideration of the Office of Works an extract from a minute by the Director of Public Works in which he recommends subject to a reservation that the third alternative should be adopted es being the most economical and satisfactory. I entirely concur in his views, but, while satisfied that the work would be carried out in a thoroughly capable manner if entrusted to the Public Works Department, I feel it my duty to point out that the Department has already more work than can be satisfactorily dealt with, and I should prefer that this additional duty should not be laid upon it.
5. Mr. E. W. Carpenter, Executive Engineer, referred to in my telegram quoted above, is now on leave
and could supply the Office of Works personally with all
the detailed information they require in connection with the Common, proposed sites in a more satisfactory and reliable form
16 than the most careful filling up of schedules could ensure,
and I would suggest that the Office of Works should be
placed in communication with him. Mr. Carpenter is an officer of considerable experience who is thoroughly conversant with all districts of the Colony and with the
construction