SOME RECENT ENGINEERING EXPERIENCES, 969 
to be completed in definite time, but without money deposit, sub- 
ject however to retention by the department of 10 per cent. of 
wages earned as security, payments being made fortnightly. The 
pay of superintending officers varies from £300 to £400 a year 
for Engineers, from 14s. to 16s. per day for Inspectors, and from 
8s, to 12s. per day for Foremen. The Permanent Staff receive the 
usual Government holidays, but the Temporary men do not. 
These methods have been applied in numerous instances and to a 
large variety of works, including Railways, Waterworks, and 
Manufacturing. 
About 350 miles of railway have been constructed during 
recent years departmentally, the latest instance being the Blyth 
and Gladstone Lines, about 56 miles long, the per manent way and 
plant and tools being bought by the Department, the live stock, 
labour, and vehicles, such as drays, being supplied by the local 
farmers, the enone masonry, provision of ballast, sleepers, 
bridge-work, fencing, and construction generally being carried out 
on one or other of the methods described, with the following 
result :— 
The estimate prepared for the coustruction of the line without 
rolling stock was £246,000. The actual cost of the completed job 
was £210,000. The detailed items can be given on schedule, and 
is ayailable for those who are interested in such matters. 
This line is one of our best, and has given no trouble since con- 
struction. 
There is at present on hand a large reservoir for the supply of 
water to the Port August District, and the whole work is being 
done departmentally, the estimated cost being £65,000. 
But the large works estimated to cost ” £509,000, and for 
increasing the ‘supply of water to the city of Adelaide, is an 
example of the use of the two methods of construction in their 
transition state. The two long tunnels, one about 3) miles, and 
the manufacture of the leading mains were let in contracts, and 
the remaining work, embankments—one 80 feet high and $ mile 
in length—draing, intakes, road, forming, fencing, = were done 
departmentally. | No doubt the whole work, if carried out some 
years ago, would have been let to one large contractor. The com- 
bination of the two methods in this instance is but an indication 
of the tendency referred to above. 
The total cost has been £492,000, and a complete schedule of 
the cost in detail is available for any who may feel interested in 
long lists of prices. 
The full development of the departmental method is however 
most marked in our manufactures. We are now making all the 
cast-iron pipes and practically all the cast-iron and brass work 
required by the Government. Here a commercial valuation of 
the change is more clearly possible than in any other branch. 
