The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-08 00:00:00

Extension of the Dockyards.

Papers have been laid before the House of Com-
mons by the Secretary to the Admiralty relating to
the proposed extension of basin and dock accommo-
dation in the royal dockyards. The Director of Works,
in a memorandum of the 23d Jan., states that his
estimate of the probable expenditure in carrying into
effect the recommendations of the select committee
of 1854 on dockyards is £6,000,000. But a very
considerable saving may be anticipated if convict
labour be employed side by side with contract work,
and his estimate based on this combination is
as follows :—Portsmotith, £1,500,000 ; Chatham,
£1,250,000 ; Keyhana, £750,000 ; Cork, £150,000;
Malta, £500,000 ; Bermuda, £250,000 ; advances
to companies in aid of the construction of docks to
be always available for her Majesty's ships,
£250,000—making in all £4,650,000. The direc-
tor takes 15 years as the period over which the ex-
penditure would be spread, involving an annual out-
lay of about £310,000 ; but so much expenditure on
make-shift alterations of works constructed with a
view to a former state of things would be saved that
the addition to the present annual vote for naval
works would probably scarcely average £lOO,OOO a
year. But he considers it desirable that Parliament
should so approve the scheme in its entirety as to
justify the Government, if the contingency of war
should arise, in engaging so large a body of free
labour as to secure the more rapid completion of the
works even at the amount of the first estimate,
£6,000,000. The director suggests that when once
the expenditure has been fixed after deliberate ex-
amination and approval of the plans it should be
sanctioned, if practicable, by an act providing for

the entire cost, removing the scheme from the in-
fluences which so often obstruct and impair the effi-
cient execution of extensive public works. When
the Government can enter into no contracts beyond
the year, the practical result is that higher prices
must be paid, and too often the results for which
they have been paid are not obtained. This view is
supported by the Admiralty in correspondence with
the Treasury relating to the dockyard extensions at
Chatham and Portsmouth, the matters were imme-
diately urgent, the Admiralty are anxious to ob-
viate the necessity for a proviso for an allowance to
contractors in the event of Parliament thinking fit
to refuse or reduce the necessary annual vote, a
proviso which inevitably leads to the payment of a
higher price, as contractors are unwilling to enter
into engagements so fettered, however large the com-
pensation to be paid them in such a contingency.
Although the total estimate for the work in the first
column of the Estimates is generally understood
as sanctioned by Parliament when the first vote for
the work is passed, yet the director of works has not
always felt authorised in cases of considerable amount
to propose to pledge the Admiralty to prospective
expenditure, and such anticipations of future votes
are especially open to objection when the first instal-
ment would be no criterion of the amount of future
instalments, or when the first " total estimate" is not
based on actual tenders or detailed specifications.
The practice does not seem to be guided by any rule,
and the Admiralty suggests that it should be con-
sidered not merely with reference to the Admiralty,
but other departments also. If contracts for these
dockyard extensions can be made with firms of the
highest position, spreading the payments in fixed in-
stalments over a series of years, great economy will
be the result. To this the Treasury can only reply,
in their letter of April 26, that so far as concerns
these particular works at Chatham and Portsmouth,
the Treasury, having regard to the magnitude of the
works, would have been inclined to suggest the in-
troduction of a bill authorising their completion
within a definite time out of moneys to be voted,
thus giving Parliament the opportunity of authoris-
ing definitely the proposed scheme. But what the
Admiralty desire is to introduce a new system gene-
rally with respect to contracts for public works, so
as to give the public the advantage possessed by the
private trade of certainty in respect of engagements
of character. The Treasury feel that they could
hardly sanction this course of proceeding without
the sanction of Parliament, but they have no ob-
jection to the question being submitted for the con-
sideration of the House of Commons.

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raexekspereii
the Rue Culture-Ste.-Catherine with an apparatus, invent ofted
by M. Galibert, to enable a man to breathe in the midst
deleterious] emanations. A quantity of flowers of
sulphur was set fire to in a cellar, and a sufficient
fireman, who had never used M. Galibert 's apparatus,
quantity of sulphurous acid being thuslevolved, a
which is a combination of air tubes, communicating with
a sort of knapsack filled with compressed air, entered the
collar, and stayed 12 minutes in it, without experiencing
any injurious effects. His nostrils during the time were
strongly compressed by a sort of spring, and his eyes pro_
ted a pair of spectacles made for the purpose. The
man did not leave the cellar until called by his colonel.
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The cellar was then filled with a dense and acrid smoke,
and another man went in with the same success. At length
Col. Willerme himself put on the apparatus, and stayed a
considerable time in that atmosphere of suffocating vapours
of every description, and convinced himself by his own
experience that a man could breathe as freely with the
apparatus as if ho were in the open air. Similar experi-
ments have been performed at Versailles, and latterly in
ono of the cellars of the Societe d'Encouragement. When
the air in the reservoir has become foul by the action of
breathing, fresh air may be easily introduced ; the knap-
sack, which is of metal, has a tin bottom, but the lid con-
sists of a skin or leather bag. To drive out the foul air,
this leather bag has only to be pressed down, and to fill the
space with fresh air the bag is pulled up again. To fill a
larger space, like that of a goat-skin, with air, 31. Galibert
uses a pair of bellows, a slower process, but better adapted
1 to the size of the recipient.