§ MR. CAWLEYsaid, he wished to ask the Junior Lord of the Admiralty, When the Contract or Contracts mentioned in the Return to this House, No. 209, of this Session, to release Mr. Gabrielli from the completion of a portion of the works at Chatham Dockyard included in the Contract with him dated April 18, 1867, and for the execution by him of certain other works connected with such Dockyard, will be signed and laid upon the Table of the House; and, what has caused delay in the signing of the Contracts to carry out that which the Board approved on the 18th March 1869?
LORD JOHN HAYsaid, in reply, that the agreement to release Mr. Gabrielli from the completion of a portion of the works at Chatham Dockyard, included in the contract with him dated the 18th of April, 1867, and for the execution by him of certain other works, was made on the 4th of June, and the Solicitor to the Admiralty was engaged in embodying it in a formal contract which, when executed, as it would be in the course of a few days, would be laid on the Table of the House. The delay in the signing of the contracts to carry out that which the Board approved on the 18th of March, 1869, had arisen out of the lengthy correspondence upon matters of detail; and that correspondence also would be laid on the Table together with the contracts.