CO129-335 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [8-10] — Page 369

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Railway. It is useless to expect them to tender for the construction of one or two bridges or a few culverts; they will only deal with the work if the Contract is a comprehensive or extensive one.

(a). Insufficient Plans. There is undoubtedly some force in this reason, but on the other hand, the line had been set out on the ground. Cadastral plans of most of the route were in existence, which contained much useful information. They were generally to a scale of 32" = 1 mile, but some of them were less, 16" = 1 mile.

I would offer the following further comments on the C.R.E's letter.

I see no occasion to have recourse to special measures for importing coolies for this work. The Naval Yard Extension Works and Messrs. Butterfield & Swire's Shipyard, each of which is costing about £1,000,000 Sterling, have been carried out without adopting any special measures. When Mr. Carpenter was carrying out the northern section of the Railway, a force of 1,500 coolies was assembled without difficulty, and towards the conclusion of the work, the number reached nearly 5,000. Work was only in progress for 6 months when it was stopped by Mr. West's orders.

So far as I can gather, the C.R.E. has succeeded in importing 150 coolies in a period of about 6 months! The scheme is evidently a failure, but I gather from his letter that he proposes to adhere to it.

As regards completing the rest of the line and allowing it to remain idle until the tunnel is finished, I think it of great importance that this should be done. There are several high embankments which will take a long time to settle, and there are also very deep cuttings which it will be beneficial to allow to experience a couple of wet seasons before the line is opened for traffic.

I think that if the attempt to let the work in detail is persevered in, any economy that may be effected will be more than counterbalanced by the heavy cost of supervision by an expensive Engineering Staff.

Sd. K.O.
9.10.06.