NEW POST OFFICE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1168, 1 July 1911, Page 5

NEW POST OFFICE.

1 WHO IS HESITATING? Onr morning contemporary published yesterday a . statement from tho Minister for Public Works tra- .. rersing a. paragraph ' which appeared in Tjie Dojhniox respecting some Jelay which has arisen in. connection with Ihc erection of the new General Post Office. Oiir statement was to the effect that tho work of constructing tho- roof had been hung up for a month owing to hesitancy on the part of the Public Works Department as to the form of construction. The Minister, in bis veply, Baid:— "The kind of roof required was fully detailed on the contract plans, and there is no intention whatever of making any alteration in the design. It is understood, however, that tho contractors, without consulting tho officers of tho Public Works Department,, ordered expanded metal different from i tho kind specified in tho contract. No doubt they found some trouble in getting this material in tho length required, unless it is specially made. There has been no hesitancy whatever about the Public Works Department. Tho statement that the contractors put in a price for strengthening the roof some timo ago, but have been delaypd because no decision was arrived at, "is absolutely contrary to fact. Messrs. J. and A. Wilson . havo been negotiating with the Resident Engineer to be allowed to substitute some other material for the No. 10 expanded metal which was provided in the con- • tract. They ordored No. 8 metal, which could not be allowed. A clause in the contract provides for the uso of steel reinforcing rods in lieu of expanded :r.i metal, and no- doubt" the contractor'will .'.be called upon to carry out-the-terms of his contract in its entirety without being asked to submit any price, as the contract • already-provides the terms on which tho rcof is to be constructed. '.•■-■ > "If- men arc being discharged it can- ', not be because the roof is not being constructed, _ os it could not be proceeded with until the three big cranes and staging at present in use in connection with the masonry work are pnlled down. "This apparently cannot be done for a considerable time. Blaming the Government for this is onlly on a par with the usual daily misrepresentations having the same object!'' We have the authority of tho contractors, Messrs J. and A." Wilron, for saying (notwithstanding the above Ministerial statement) that' the cause of delay wns, as we originally stated. The Public M'orks Engineer, we are informed, called on the contractors to provide an alternative roof (flat) plan providing for extra reinforceirent, with steel bars, and it is the fact that they are waiting for a decision with respect to the same which has been the sole cause of the delay. The Minister had a good deal to say about exnanded metal, but that was only a detail. The contractors had a quantity of No. 8 exnanded metal on hn-nd. because they had been led to believe that the roof construction would be the same as the floor, in which No. 8 was used (though No. 10 was originally specified in both ca?ies). With reference to the Minister's chareo of misrepresentations, tho public will be ablo to I'mlcr where they came from in this instance. Tt should be pointed ont that nearly the whole of the Toof could be completed without the removal of the cranes. As a matter of fact, the cranes will bo nsed for hoisting up the material required for tho construction of tho roof.