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Engineer to be tested, when, if reported on favourably, it will be used, but not otherwise. I have not yet got your items of reductions from contract, so as to place same against additions in ' contingency.' Be good enough to carefully make up same at your early convenience, and also make no further deviation from contract at any point without obtaining my written order.—Yours truly, E. A. Lawson." I wish you, gentlemen, to specially note my direction to Mr. Brindley as to any deviation from the contract, in the latter part of that letter. From that time no deviation from the contract was to be made at any point without my written order. I think that that was careful enough on my part. Mr. Blair : But the contract had then been going on for three years. Mr. Gore : If you, gentlemen, think proper, I will put in letters on the same subject. I have copies of them. Mr. Lawson: As to roughness and irregularities in foundations, Mr. Brindley will speak with authority, and I leave that to his tender mercies. Certainly I never was made aware of any such thing, or that the brickwork overhung the concrete in any part of the foundations. As a matter of fact, I was never made aware of it until I saw it along with the Commissioners. If I had been aware of it I should have taken immediate steps to rectify it. Mr. Brindley should have known of it if it existed at the time ; and he will speak for himself in that matter. If he knew it, he failed in his duty by not informing me of it. I deny emphatically that, as asserted in Mr. Blair's statement, I was informed at any time by Mr. Brindley that barrow-loads of dirty stones were at any time tipped into the trenches. Mr. Blair remarked that Mr. Lawson was not correctly quoting him. He had stated that Mr. Brindley had made such a statement to Mr. Ussher. The Chairman: Was that in the original statement of Mr. Blair? Mr. Lawson .• It may not be in it now, but I certainly have it noted as having been said by Mr. Blair. Mr. Blair: I shall call for the production of the reporter's notes. I think I said that Mr. Brindley had told Mr. Ussher that such had taken place, and that he drew your attention to the fact. Mr. Lawson : Your statement was that he had informed me that barrow-loads of dirty stones were wheeled into the trenches. Mr. Law SOU : I have to complain that Mr. Blair has been coaching up Mr. Brindley all through. Mr. Lawson: I never spoke to Mr. Brindley but once, and I consider the position you have taken towards him is a wrong one. Mr. Blair: That is quite immaterial, sir, and outside the question. Mr. Lawson : It is a very material point. Mr. Blair is coaching up Mr. Brindley I say. Mr. Blair : I deny the charge. Mr. Brindley : I also deny it. Mr. Lawson: It is Mr. Biair lam speaking about. TJie Chairman : Well, never mind, Mr. Lawson. Mr. Lawson: I think it is a very tyrannous thing for the Public Service to have acted as they have done towards Mr. Brindley ever since his arrival here. Mr. Blair: These are matters the department are ignorant of. Mr. Lawson: Are you not the department here ? Who is the representative of the Piiblic Works Department at this inquiry ? Mr. Blair : I represent the department. Mr. Gore (sen.) : That is just what we have wanted to get at. The Chairman : These are the reporter's notes : " The quality of the concrete was also anything but what it should be, as the Commissioners saw for themselves large stones were put in to save the cement all through it. Sometimes these stones, instead of being a foot or two apart, were actually in nests; and I shall bring evidence to show that in some cases they were put in by the barrow load." (To Mr. Lawson) : This is the portion to which I think you allude? —No. Mr. Lawson : You will also find the statement that barrow-loads of dirty stones were thrown in. Mr. Blair : There is nothing there about Mr. Brindley having told Mr. Lawson. Mr. Lawson : Yes, that is the part of it I took notice of. Mi. Blair : Oh, yes ! I beg your pardon, that is all right; we will come to that. Mr. Lawson: I here and now emphatically deny it. Mr. Brindley is not a man to simply tell me of a thing of that kind; he would tell me in writing, as he did everything else. He found plenty of faults; it is the duty of an Inspector to find faults. The Chairman : Well, Mr. Lawson, we are not getting on by this controversy, nor will it lead to anything. Mr. Latcson : It leads to a great deal, sir. [Mr. Skinner read the words used by Mr. Blair from the reporter's notes as follows : " Mr. Ussher will give evidence in support of this memorandum of Mr. O'Conor; and he will also show that Mr. Brindley told him that the Contractor tipped barrow-loads of dirty boulders from the excavation behind the building into the trenches in lieu of the material specified ; that the architect's attention was drawn to the fact, but that the Inspector received no satisfaction from him."J Mr. Lawson : Even had it been, I would have had it in writing, like all the other statements. It was of too much importance, a thing of that kind, to have been spoken of by word of mouth. The only occasion on which a fault was strongly urged by the Inspector has already been referred to : as to the concrete, and that was in writing ; and as it has already been stated also, the concrete referred to was first condemned by Mr. Brindley. I supported him in this condemnation, and it was removed under his own supervision. A question also was raised about the downpipes. You will see by my letter of the 18th January, 1882, when I referred to these. This is addressed to Mr. Brindley: " I have yours of this date re