THE OTAGO GRAVING DOCK.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2659, 25 August 1871, Page 2

THE OTAGO GRAVING DOCK.

To the Editor. Sir,— Observing in a late issue of your paper that the.contractors for the Dock have hid a claim for L‘22,000 against the ; Dock Trust,: I wish to make a few remarks on the subject, and trust that it will not bo allowed bo rest without further ventilation.

The gentleman - under whose direction this .vbi k has been curiod out his, I understand, the engineejship of a work of a similar na* tu’re at Oamaru, involving - something: like 1j20,C00. The contract for the Otagc Dock, I relieve, was let for the life in a position. not in any way exposed to He od ’an ; on the contrary, in still water. Thia~wosk,~l - believe, ‘origin* illy by the late„.Mf Balfour; but owing to his death, its dire dion fell into the hands of the present engineer, who, l.believe, held tbo position of a subordinate in Mr .Balfour’s office. The. Dock Engineer, in his evidence •eforc the Magistrate’s Court, iu the case of ifolmes v. Macandrow, relative to- the Anderson’s Bay Road, that he had had no experience as an engineer before doming to < 'tago; ami further, that he could hot It ate on what engineering wo :k' , ';lie,t was employed -iir this Province. - fTow“as - Enis is the first Dock that has ever been constructed in O.ago, or indeed, ! believe, in the Colony, d appears tome that the Dock. Trust has been guilty of gross waste of pub’ic money In e nploying an individual as engineer for a work of this magnioude, who on his sworn testimony c m hj ve no pretension to the proessiou of a Civil Engineer. The same gentleman has been employed by the Oamaru Dock Tiust as Engineer for he Harbor Works the e, which a>e to be in uich an eminently critical position, that the jetty constructed by the late Mr Balfour—theu Colonial Marine Engi ieer—at a cost of nearly L10,()00, ’ was almost immediately washed away. Ish • uld l.ke to enquiry if it is probable that the present Engineer, who has lamentably failed with L 50.000 to make i Dock in a millpond like Port Chalmers, can construct one of the most elaborate and costly of engineering works in a roadstead like Oamaru, exposed as it is to the fury of the open ocean. It is time that we looked to it, I for one ■ntcr my protest against squandering our tens of thousands, burdened as we are with lobt, under the direction of such inexperienced men. I am, &c.,

One who has to pay for it.