AUCKLAND HARBOUR BRIDGE

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1931, Page 7

AUCKLAND HARBOUR BRIDGE

PROGRESS OF NEGOTIATIONS. ENGLISH FIRMS INTERESTED. The steps taken in. Wellington toward furthering the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge were outlined at a meeting of the executive of the Harbour Bridge Company on Thursday by Mr. C.. H. M. Wills, chairman of directors, who with two other representatives. of the company visited Wellington early in the week to meet Mr. Li Ennis, of the firm of Dorman, Long and Company, who has been in charge of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. After the meeting Mr. Wills stated that his conversations with Mr. Ennis had been very satisfactory. While he ■had been in Wellington he had also made other inquiries regarding the construction of the bridge, but was not in a position to state when work on the project would commence, beyond saying that work would probably start before , next winter, as previously announced. Financial arrangements had not yet been concluded, while no definite arrangements had been made regarding the contractors. Inquiries had been received from other English engineering firms in addition to Dorman, Long and Company, but it seemed probable that the latter firm would carry out the work. If negotiations with the firm were satisfactorily concluded in the meantime, there was no reason why work on the Auckland bridge should not commence before the Sydney bridge was opened on March 19, as there was no necessity, to await the completion of the Australian structure. The contractors’ work in Sydney was now almost completed, iri any case, and the only work that remained was the finishing o,f the embankments and the laying of rail and trainway tracks, which were in the hands of the local Public Works Department. Mr. Wills said that he could not Say when Mr. Ennis would visit Auckland. It was possible lie might inspect the site of the Auckland bridge before the opening of the Sydney bridge and then return to Sydney, but it was-regarded as certain that he would come to Auckland in the near future before finally returning to England. The offices of the company had been visited by a large number of skilled and unskilled workers in search of employment, concluded Mr. Wills- Among those who had applied were blacksmiths, plumbers, artisans and clerks, of all descriptions, and at first a register of their names had been kept. 'When the total number of names reached 1500, it was found impossible to continue and no further applications were being entertained. 'When the question of employment had been discussed, Mr. Ennis had said that if the bridge were constructed bv his firm, the whole of the labour, with the exception of skilled foremen and technical experts, would be obtained in New Zealand.