SOMEBODY MUST LOSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 185, 26 October 1927, Page 1

SOMEBODY MUST LOSE

Armstrong, WhitwiiitA 7iew

GOVERNMENT 3 OBDURACY RESENTED

THAT the Arapuni liy electric undertaking' may cost the Government another £1,000,000 was indicated by the St Hon. Edward Shortt, K.C., counsel for the contractors ■ n an interview with THE SUN’S Wellington representative la said his efforts for a settlement had not been, reciprocatec •nd referred to the undesirable effect the Government’s ittitude may have in its dealing with other overseas contractors. There is more to be inferred from Mr. Shortt s statements than is actually said.

roni Our Resident Coi'rcspondent.') WELLINGTON, Tuesday. OMEBODY has got to lose an } enormous amount of money over 2 whole scheme, and I have been ing to divide it.” This is the interpretation which the t. Hon. Edward Shortt, the English .C., places on his own efforts at conliation for the settlement of the dis-

put© between the Government and the firm of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, Ltd., in connection with the Arapuni hydro-electric works. Mr. Shortt, who has been in Wellington for some time, is not complimentary to the Government in his reference to the State attitude toward the contract for the big northern hydro project. “The big dam at Arapuni will be

finished in December, and will be cessful," he said. “If the Govei accepts the . new proposal the \ cost will fall on the Government, if the authorities will come to s such arrangement as the remote coni station that has been suggested, we ai prepared to treat the new plan as : part of the original contract, and Auckland will get its power six months sooner.’* Mr. Shortt hinted that the State possibly might take over the contract and

finish it itself, Taut he inferred that this would result in an expenditure of nearly £1,000,000 extra. Because this was the first real big contract the New Zealand Government had secured big contractors at Home were watching very closely. The contract in this case provided only for usual contractors’ risks. The position at Arapuni was that the foundations of the power-house site were totally different from the specification. It was not a case of a contractor’s risk, but of a different proposition altogether. “I have been attempting,” Mr. Shortt said, “to arrive at what an English arbitrator would consider a fair thing, having regard to all the circumstances. I have had in mind the fact that other big contractors are anxious to come here for the benefit and, of course, for their own profit Bearing that in mind, I have been prepared to go very much further on behalf of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, Ltd., than I would have done as an ordinary lawyer representing an ordinary client. I have met with no reciprocation of any kind from the Government.”

Mr. Shortt went on to say that he had nut before the Government some other cases between contractors and public authorities, including one of Armstrong, Whitworth, Ltd., in Jamaica, and two cases concerning Pearson’s (Lord Cowdray’s firm) with the Belfast Corporation and the Metropolitan Water Power (London), whicCi had been settled without recourse to expensive litigation.