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Q.-But although your measuring surveyor might not be able to measure every- thing, still he could measure a great deal, could be not?
A.--Yes, he could measure a great deal; he would reduce the risk; he could not abolish it entirely. You must trust to a man if you are carrying out a work. If you put a man in charge you are in his hands.
Q.-Then say there was an exceptional work which required to be measured at once, whereas your measuring surveyor might be at Shau-ki Wan, might it not be possible to send Mr. CRAMP, or Mr. HoWROYD, or someone of that kind, not the overseer, to measure?
A. You see he could not go there once; he would have to go there every day as the work progressed. If you were laying a sewer at Shau-ki Wan his trips would be constant. He would have to go and measure the excavation, then the cube of the stone broken for mixing concrete, then to count the barrels of cement used by the Contractor; then he would go and measure the granite used. It is not as though he could make one trip and finish the whole thing. The supervision of the work would then practically devolve on him and the Overseer would take a back place. The real remedy for the whole of this thing is to do everything as much as possible by contract.
Q.-Is not the measuring surveyor a practice of the Royal Engineers ?
A. Yes, but I don't think there is any analogy between their procedure and ours, I dont suppose they have, what shall I say, one fiftieth of the work we have. With them I dare say it would be possible; with us I fear it would not. It is a matter I have considered before now, and if I have not adopted it I can assure the Commission it is because I have not seen my way to doing it.
Q.-Would it be possible to adopt it on trial?
A. If you could give me three or four Clerks of Works it might be done by peram- bulating ones, measuring every work from day to day as it went on.
But it is very important to bear this in mind; it cannot be done by one inspection; it must be continuous.
Q.-But would you want more than one well-paid man, a man like Mr. ORANGE?
A. It must be a practical man. No engineer would do that work. You don't want a professional man; you want men like CRAMP or HoWROYD. There is a vast difference, a gulf, between the two.
Q-Well, getting the best man, would you want more than one more than you have now?
A. Yes, two or three, I think.
Q-Then we come to another point which is really connected with this. Could any plan be devised which would take away from the Overseer the power of recommend-
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