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their opinion that it could be built for $32,000. At that time, however, no detailed drawings had been prepared for the structure. After the approval of the proposal to make the addition Messrs. Denison, Ram and Gibbs forwarded in due course detailed drawings for the Tower. These were passed to Mr. Fisher for guidance in carrying out the work. Mr. Chatham did not scrutinise the drawings because Messrs. Denison, Ram and Gibbs had been appointed Con- -sulting Architects for this particular building. Mr. Chatham's view, in which I concur, is that he was in exactly the same position as regards this building as he was in regard to the Law
Courts for which Messrs. Sir Aston Webb and Ingress Bell were Consulting Architects. That is to say he had no responsibility as
regards the building beyond the carrying out of the plans sent
to him by the Consulting Architects. Subsequently owing to the
unsatisfactory nature of the drawings for the roof of the building,
it was deemed desirable to scrutinise carefully the drawings for
the Tower. This work was entrusted to Messrs. Gale and Perkins,
Executive Engineers, and as a result of their report it was decided to substitute masonry for the brickwork in which the greater portion of the Tower had been designed. The result has been the largely increased cost noted in Mr. Fisher's letter.
The question of responsibility for the faulty design was carefully considered by Sir F. Lugard, who eventually decided not to take action for damages against Messrs. Denison, Ram and Gibbs but to compromise with that Firm by paying them a commission on their original estimate of the cost of the Tower. The letter, copy of which forms enclosure D
11.
in Mr. Fisher's letter was forwarded to Government by Mr. Chatham in April, 1912. Mr. Chatham explained that he had not forwarded it earlier "because the accounts for the work were in a very in- "-complete state. It was not till November last that I was in a "position to report the approximate total cost and forward an "explanatory statement with regard to it. Meanwhile the "correspondence which had arisen regarding the Post Office and "Law Courts caused Mr. Fisher's letter to be overlooked and it
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