OTIRA TUNNEL.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 February 1917, Page 4

OTIRA TUNNEL.

Engineer’s Interesting Disclosure- “ What Might Have Been” Wellington, OolAngasr 9, J 912, <he On in f unnel was to have boea completed by the contractors who first undertook tb<* five mile boring t«*k. They tjave •-* up with the work scarcely ha’f dona in December, 1912, and there is still over a mile to be completed by the Government engineers* who since that date had had the work in hand. In the light of tbesg facts, it is interesting to know that a rival firm to that of Messrs M’Lsan and Sons, who got the ccmtraot was in the field. Mr Henry E. White, a constructional engineer whose work is well known in New Zealand and Australia, has made public his association with the preliminaries of the great work of tunnelling the Otira. “I don’t think the story has ever been iold of onr offer to put through the Arthur’s Pa\a tunnel,” ha remarked to an interviewer. “When I say ‘onrV I mopn that of Mr W. G. T. Goodman, now engineer and superintendent of the Adelaida tramways, and myself. At that time the Government was calling for tenders, and we decided to have a go. I lived for some weeks on the territory, examining the nature of the ground, taking measurements and generally making myself acquainted with the nature of the difficulties to ba overcome. Then we tendered but were turned down by the Government, ao our price was a bit over the Government engineer’s estimate. Later on the Government accepted tha tender of the M Lean Bros, of some £6OO over ours, and as everyone knows they had to give it up and the Governmant is carrying on the work at a cost I would not like to guess. I am still certain we could have done the job.”