CO129-336 - Governor Nathan & Public Offices - 1906 [11-12] — Page 494

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Contract Drawings before any start with the works could

be made and a more serious loss of time would occur as no

doubt the Contractors would think it necessary to inspect

the spot and to satisfy themselves as to the nature of

the work to be undertaken. It is also a great question

whether Contractors would not desire to have some borings

taken on the line of the tunnel before pledging themselves

as to a Contract sun.

We gather that the Government would be averse to

any such loss of time as would be involved by the above

named necessities in the case of & Contract, and if it

were decided to carry out the work departmentally the

staff could be engaged forthwith and sent out to Hong Kong

and a commencement made with the construction work at an

early date.

If all that were desired were merely to com-

mence the works quickly it might be possible to execute

the work north of the tunnel departmentally, making a & to submit to the delays necessary for letting the tunnel beginning at once on that portion and the southern por-

tion by Contract. But the disadvantages of this mode of

procedure would be that in respect of the work which must

of necessity take the longest time in its execution, namely

the tunnel, a commencement would be considerably postponed

and thus the final execution of the whole of the under-

taking would be correspondingly delayed.

After giving thematter our best consideration we

should recommend that the whole work should be carried out

departmentally.

We are &c

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(sa) J. Wolfe Barry