BOARD SEEKS NEW ENGINEER.

NZ Truth, Issue 994, 13 December 1924, Page 5

BOARD SEEKS NEW ENGINEER.

At a Lower Salary,

Just prior to the sitting of the Commission !■ of Inquiry . into the cause of the collapse ot the Western wharf, the chairman of. the Harbor Board (Mr. H. B... Mackenzie), declared that the Board had every, confidence m its officers. It was thought then that it would be found that .the^catastrophe .was due to an unavoidable agency — : one of: those agencies which the steamship companies, declare to be . an "afif, of God" when they wish, to avoid ■ liability for damage or injury. But the^commission found that the collapse^ is due to human agency, therefore it* was no wonder that W. H. Hamer, for .21 years engineer to the Board, who was responsible for .the. designing and planning .of the wharf, tendered his resignation. . * ■'■'

It is probable that the -replacement and renewal of the Western wharf will cost £100,000. What will be the fate of the million-pounds Prince's wharf cannot be told, m view of the suddenness of the catastrophe to the other. ■' Naturally the commission is optimistic. It cannot unduly alarm the public. But it says that the same influences that caused the collapse of the Western wharf are at work oil the Prince's wharf. It urges, the immediate commencement of precautionary work.

r An engineer of experience and undoubted ability will have to be secured m the" place of Mr. Hamer. The Board is inviting applicants from men who are competent. Mr. Hamer's salary is £1650 a year. The Board offers a new engineer only £1250 a year. In other words, the Board dispenses with the services of a man . v/ho draws £1650 and whom circumstances declare incompetent as a builder of wharves, , and calls for a competent wharf-builder at £400 a year less! Anything more ignorant and ridiculously unbusinesslike would be hard to imagine. These are the days m which s.eienceand business pay high wages for expert knowledge and experience. For the wealthy and important Auckland Harbor Board to offer £1250 a year for. an engineer to take charge of all its works sounds something like a dream of Henry Ford offering a salary of a . dollar a . week to a factorymanager.