View report page

28
instructions for this work to be stopped, as in my judgment sufficient
has been discovered to prove the existing defects and to render it
necessary for consideration to take place as to whether further openings
are desirable or whether action should not be directed to removing
what is defective and providing new.
" With regard to the application of the Guardians that you should
carry out the necessary redrainage by your staff at the Guardians'
expense, I would add that after careful consideration of all the circumstances
I am at present unable to see how it is possible for any tenders
to be invited or contracts prepared in view of the fact that no one is
aware of the extent, condition, or actual run of the various drains
throughout this institution.
" So far as we are able to gather, there is no accurate plan in
existence. The old plan made about the year 1855 has been seen, but
for all practical intents and purposes this plan is useless. Mr. Siggins,
the Guardians' bricklayer, is the only person who appears to know
anything whatever about the depth or direction of any portion of the
drains, and I venture to add that it would be impossible to prepare
anything like a specification that would hold good for a single week
after the works had been commenced. Consequently the Guardians
would be saddled with a large amount of extras and additional cost
which it would be impossible to include in any original contract, and
there can be no doubt that it would be to the interests of the ratepayers
if you made a report to the Council recommending this should
be dealt with as a sewer, and that the works be carried out, so far as
the underground portion is concerned, by the Council's staff, and that
an accurate account of time and material be kept and charged to the
Guardians, exactly as though it were a sewer job being done for the
Council.
" With regard to the plumbing works, carpenter's works and
making good necessary on the refitting of the w.c.'s and sanitary
conveniences, these could be dealt with in the same way, i.e., the
different tradesmen concerned could be asked to give an estimate for
each section of work as it progressed, and the cost of such works be
charged to the Guardians.