CO129-350 - Public Offices - 1908 — Page 238

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"discretion as such a Contractor gives to his Agent"

When these two quotations are read side by side

it will, we think, be readily seen that Bis Excellency has

strangely misunderstood the meaning of the paragraph which

he quotes, and whereas he gives to it the interpretation that

the Consulting Engineers are responsible for the risks which

a Contractor would take, the memorandum states distinctly

that the Government takes upon itself those risks in lieu

of paying to the Contractor the profits which he would

naturally demand. There is not a word about the fee of the

Consulting Engineers being in return for the responsibility

of a Contractor and we should have thought that it would be

Apart from the interpre-

tation of the words of the memorandum, it would be impossible

for Consulting Engineers to take upon themselves the risks

contingent upon such matters as the adequacy of the foundations

for various distant works and it is for this reason that the

manifest that it could not be 80.

Government, as provided by Clause 10 of your memorandum of

February 1906, appointed a Chief Resident Engineer as its

own servant, leaving to him, while acting directly under its

own instructions, as far as possible the technical control

of the works, subject in respect of matters submitted by

Government to the Consulting Engineers for their advise.

That

8.