THE CITY AND THE RAILWAY DEPARTMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 135, 7 June 1907, Page 4

THE CITY AND THE RAILWAY DEPARTMENT.

It is some satisfaction to learn that, after considering the protest of the City Council, the Railway Department has changed its mind about the wooden structure which it originally proposed to erect in Queen-street. As the Mayor said last night, it was hardly creditable to Government that the erection of a wooden building inside the brick area, in direct contravention of the city by-laws, should ever have been seriously contemplated. But as the Department has decided that it would not be wise to deface our chief street-front and defy the municipal authorities in this way, the City Council is inclined to let the matter drop. Unfortunately, however, the repentance of the Railway Department is not very thorough-going. It is now intended to put up this wooden building a little way back from Queen-street, along the railway line, but still within the brick area, The only advantage that we gain by the change is that the main city front will not be spoiled. But so far as the principle for which the City Council was fighting is concerned, the position of affairs is absolutely unaltered, and we are surprised that the Mayor and the councillors decided to offer no further objection. The Mayor holds that if the building is only temporary, and if tbe city fire risks are not affected by it, we need say nothing more about it. But, in the first place, as Mr. Farrell pointed out, there is nothing of a temporary nature about! the foundations already laid on the Queen-street site; and, secondly, ifj wooden buildings do not increase the danger from fire, there has never been any| reason for the by-law which excludes them from the city area. Bat the by-law

is there; it i 3 admittedly necessary, and it is the obvious duty _f our municipal authorities to carry it into effect. The Railway Department has no more moral right than any private individual to ignore or to defy our municipal regulations, and to insist upon the legal right of Government to use our property for public purposes -without considering us is surely, as the Mayor has said, a very discreditable policy. We have no desire to offer what Mr. Tarr calls - factious " opposition to the Railway Department. But our municipal rights in such matters are certainly worth fighting for, and we regret that the Mayor and City Council are not inclined to offer a stouter resistance to this high-handed and unnecessary infringement of our by-laws.