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Mr. Blair: He was authorised to employ him on behalf of the Government. The Chairman : It does not say anything here about whom he was supposed to take his instructions from. 2337. Mr. Blair.] Did you prepare many of the detailed drawings for this asylum ?—With regard to the detailed drawings there must have been a bit of a mistake. These are what I call working drawings. The scale of the contract-drawings was xs-in. to lft. Well, when I first went up there was nothing much to do. It took three or four months to get cement and materials, and I started and made some plans ; I will produce them, they are all in the office. It was something to keep me employed when I started, but I did not intend to go on from beginning to end; but when I started I went on from beginning to end and made them all. By the plans of so small a scale, for instance, the no centres were given for doors or windows, and if the thing had not been set out without figures the building would have been put up "higgledy-piggledy." 2338. In addition to the ordinary details, did you make what are called " working plans?"—■ Yes. 2339. Mr. Laivson.] I thought you said you did not prepare details ?—They were details on 1-Jin scale. [Plans prepared by Mr. Brindley put in and marked " 29."] 2340. Mr. Blair.'] What were the plans you got from Mr. Lawson's office ? —The contract plans. 2341. Did you get any other plans at all from him ?—I have had one or two details. There was a detail of the main block (that is the centre block) of the turrets; these turrets on the end of the front of it; I daresay you may have noticed them. At the time I got that they were shown projecting out, and I suggested that they should be carried in, and a detail was sent up to Jin. scale, bringing them inside. Well we found, when the thing came up, that no consideration had been taken of the windows, and that it would have blocked the adjoining window up. That was one of the things I had up. I made an enlarged detail of it and submitted it to Mr. Lawson at the time, and it was carried out according to that detail. 2342. The Chairman.] What with regard to the other turret ?—There was another detail I had of the front. On the front there was a coat of arms or something on the top, and I got that about a month after the thing was built. Then I had another quarter-scale detail of the tower ; that was altered. Owing to the large opening for the clock the turrets were brought in so as not to have any overhanging weight at the angle. 2343. I noticed these turrets were brought in ?—Yes ; they were brought in on that account. The fact is I funked on it; the plan forwarded by Mr. Lawson would not bring it in. 2344. Mr. Blair.] Did you trace this drawing for the foreman ?—I traced one of the foundations. There was two or three days' work in it, and I did it for the benefit of Mr. Dick. 2345. Why was that ?—He was not good at figures. 2346. You had to make him a fresh plan ? —I made him a tracing of it, and I believe Mr. Gore got it. 2347. You made a special tracing for Mr. Dick?— Yes; that is of the centre block. Ho was only up there for a few months. 2348. Did he insist upon having a special plan for himself?— Yes, he did. 2349. Did you supply as many plans as you could in setting out the foundations ? —Yes, I did. They were always in the office if anybody wanted to see them. I never objected to anybody coming there. 2350. Were the original drawings complete enough to work from in setting out foundations and. other works ?—I did not consider they were. 2351. Could an ordinary building foreman set them out from those drawings ? —lf he did he would have to be inside nearly half his time making calculations as to the positions of different things. 2352. What scale were they on?— One-sixteenth of an inch to the foot. There were some eighth scale sections. One thing I should like to mention is that, according to the specifications, ventilation had to be provided. Each of the cells and dormitories were to have an inlet flow and an outlet-flow, and the specifications mention it. I cannot call the exact word, but the meaning is that these flues were to bo in each room and carried up to the line of the eaves and discharge there. There were to be 6in. earthenware pipes in the walls. I forget the quantity of them. 2353. The Chairman.] Exhaust-openings ? —Exhaust-openings, inlet-openings too. There is an enormous quantity of them—somewhere between two and three thousand running feet of them. 2354. Mr. Blair.] Did this involve a lot of labour, the setting out of these ? —I had to set them out. There is such a multiplicity of them, and there is nothing on the plans showing them. Unless I had set them out myself nobody else could understand them. 2355. Could you calculate the dimensions on the ground unless you made the working drawings you have made?—No, I could not. Speaking either as a tradesman or a professional man I could not. Not to go and stand there and make a calculation as to the position of every window on a job of that size, and set them out too. I mean, take for instance, a place like this. There is a series of beams coming across, and unless the windows are divided out according to the length of the room we should never got the place to look ship-shape at all. You could not scale them from the plans. 2356. With reference to the drainage-plan we came across there, how did you come to have to do with that ?—The drainage-plans ? 2357. Yes ?—That is the water and sewage ? 2358. Yes? —Mr. Lawson wrote to me and asked me to make this plan. The whole block was going on at the time, and I felt that I was handicapped and could not do them, and I wrote to the effect that I could not do them. 2359. Did he send you a plan out ? —Yes ; that is the one which is produced. 2360. Was that plan workable ?—lt was unworkable owing to the things on the ground. Mr.