HARBOUR BRIDGE SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20821, 13 March 1931, Page 12

HARBOUR BRIDGE SCHEME.

THE EMPOWERING BILL.

GOVERNMENT SPONSORSHIP. To enable the Auckland harbour bridge project to be considered by Parliament without delay, tlio Government, it is stated, has decided to treat trie empowering bill now being drafted by the Auckland Harbour Bridge Company as a Government measure and to submit it to the House of Representatives during the present emergency session. The deputy-chairman of the company, Mr. C. 11. M. Wills, said yesterday tjut at a recent interview with Ministers in Wellington he was informed that the Government intended to take this courso because the local bodies concerned had agreed to the granting of a charter to tlio company and had decided that the work should bo expedited. The Government had also been influenced by the finding of tho Royal Commission, winch considered that no obstacle should bo placed in the way if private enterprise desired to build the bridge. It would bo necessary first, however, for the local bodies to oxamino and approve the proposed bill in conjunction with the company. As soon as tho interested parties had settled the provisions of the bill between thomselves, tlio Government would peruse it, and if satisfied with it would immodiatoly introduce it into Parliament. The local bodies had been asked to hold special meetings immediately. The Government had been influenced largely by the fact tlinfc it nad been assured both by tho company and by several contractors that the bridge could be commenced within four months from the dato tho charter was granted. In that event, direct work would be provided for approximately 600 local men on the bridge and in the workshops, with indirect work for several hundred more.