MR. FINLAYSON AND THE PENROSE DUPLICATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 151, 26 June 1907, Page 8

MR. FINLAYSON AND THE PENROSE DUPLICATION.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The remarks made by Mr. T. Knlaysoa, at the Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner on Saturday last anent the slow progress of the Penrose duplication works', call for severe criticism. It may be doubted if ever there was an instance where a man went so much out of his way to make statements so utterly at variance with any par-tide of truth as this gentleman on the above subject. To represent the work now in progress on the duplication as the jibe and laughing stock of fevery schoolboy is not altogether a happy effort on his part. Now, sir, what are the facts of the case? The construction works on the Penrose duplication are at present, and have been since their commencement, manned by the pick of Auckland's workmen. They are working under gangers who are all capable and conscientious officers of the Department, and the whole is under the constant supervision of a vigilant inspector, whose practical experience would compare, I have no doubt, very favourably with Mr. I_nlayson"s. So fax from any Government stroke being allowed, 1 am in a position to say that no contractor ever worked his men harder or to better advantage than the men are being worked on this line; and, in proof of this, let any outside expert inspect the works—not schoolboys or dry goods men—but an expert who could be regarded as an authority on railway construction, and he will at once see that operations are being carried on not only to the best advantage, but that economy is exercised on a scale that any liberal contractor would be ashamed to practice. The truth is, the Auckland Penrose duplication works have been rather a take-in from the beginning, the Department and to the publlic. The points where the bulk of the work lies, at Green-lane at Ellersiie and the subways between those two places, are solid rock, and bad boring and bad shooting rock at that; and it would have simply meant ruin to any contractor who had taken it on its surface appearance. In conclusion let mc say that those works, as carried out under the present system and management, are a clear and striking indication of the principle that the contractor should be eliminated from Government works of this kind, Mr. Finlayson and the schoolboys notwithstanding.—l am, etc., <-I_CVER MASON. " The Man on the End of the Bar" writes to similar effect.