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local Public Works Department might with advantage render some assistance to the Railway Staff on matters outside actual Construction Work, and in which the long local experience of the Director might be of the greatest service. Such for instance is the matter of Contracts. Chinese Contractors are willing to tender for considerable Works and they carry out these Contracts with great skill in accordance with the plans and specifications. It is therefore the custom to let most Works to Contract either wholly or by separate tenders for different sections, and I understood the Consulting Engineers to favour this system in connection with the Railway.
It appears to me therefore that when the Chief Resident Engineer has decided to let a Contract of any magnitude and has drawn up his specifications, the local Public Works Department may greatly assist him by their intimate knowledge of the various Chinese Contractors, and may thus relieve him of work which in no way concerns the expert duties of construction. I am endeavouring to promote this co-operation, and to extend it to Civil Officials in the New Territories, with a view to ensuring on the one hand that the Contracts are taken up by reliable men and on the most economical terms procurable, and on the other of preventing or disposing of disputes
* lon's
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local Public Works Department might with advantage render
some assistance to the Railway Staff on matters outside
actual Construction Work, and in which the long local
experience of the Director might be of the greatest service.
Such for instance is the matter of Contracts. Chinese
Contractors are willing to tender for considerable Works
and they carry out these Contracts with great skill in
accordance with the plans and specifications. It is there-
-fore the custom to let most Works to Contract either
wholly or by separate tenders for different sections, and
I understood the Consulting Engineers to favour this system
in connection with the Railway. It appears to me therefore
that when the Chief Resident Engineer has decided to let
a Contract of any magnitude and has drawn up his specifica-
-tions, the local Public Works Department may greatly
assist him by their intimate knowledge of the various
Chinese Contractors, and may thus relieve him of work
which in no way concerns the expert duties of construction.
I am endeavouring to promote this co-operation, and to
extend it to Civil Officials in the New Territories, with
a view to ensuring on the one hand that the Contracts are
taken up by reliable men and on the most economical terms
procurable, and on the other of preventing or disposing of disputes
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