AERODROME PLANS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 303, 18 September 1936, Page 11

AERODROME PLANS

Christchurch Scheme MR. SEMPLE’S FINAL WORD A "final word” was said yesterday by_the Ministft- of Public Works, Hon. R. Semple, in the controversy over the plans for the Christchurch municipal aerodrome. The Minister said the point at issue was that plans submitted to the Public Works Department by the city council’s staff did not permit of the determination of quantities or the preparation of an estimate of cost No fault was found, however, with the survey work carried out by. the council’s staff. “To avoid further delay,” continued the Minister, “I am arranging for the original field work to be plotted correctly and a plan prepared from which an estimate can be compiled. This will take some weeks and the delay In starting work would have been prevented had the city council presented its information in the form originally asked for. “I am of opinion that where a local authority employs a competent engineering staff it should be required to present proposals for work involving a Government subsidy to the same standard as that required by this department in calling for tenders, ahd not, as is frequently the case, ‘lean’ on the staff of the department in the expectation that the heavy routine work will be performed by Government officers on the local authority’s behalf.. “I have stated the facts, and this is my final word in the controversy between the Mayor of Christchurch, his engineer, and myself and my department. The department has to set a standard for these jobs. It knows its job, too, and is not going to deviate from it for any local body. We are not going to embark on any work without first ascertaining the facts, so that we know the cost we have to meet.”