STATE AND BY-LAWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 10

STATE AND BY-LAWS.

WOOD IN THE BRICK AREA.

(To the Editor.)

While admitting the desirability and need of a social security measure such as that shortly to be introduced by the Government, one is tempted to ask whether it is justified in assuming , dictatorial powers and overriding the by-la we of the capital city of the Dominion. One cannot imagine the Imperial Parliament in Westminster deliberately flouting the L.C.C. and Board of Trade by erecting a hugh wooden structure, constituting a standing menace to the whole city, within a chain or two from Parliament House. Yet this i« apparently what our New Zealand Legislature has done if we are to believe the [ reports of the 'disastrous fire in Wellington a few days since. It appears that £100.000 worth of the people's property has been thrown away by such wanton carelessness. The Minister's statement that the structure was insured is merely a sop to the unsophisticated and does not minimise the loss which all have to ultimately share by one single penny piec°. If such flimsy buildings are necessary to house the huge staff which will be required for the Social Security scheme, and if accommodation cannot be obtained in the city's permanent structures, then at least they should be well outside the brick areas. One wonders if any night watchmen were cm ployed, or were they all asleep? Incendiarism appears highly improbable, as no person stood to train anything, and it is difficult to believe that any human Ikmiijt would be capable of deliberately starting a fire which might have wiped out the whole city and caused the deaths of many innocent folk, with no possible advantage to themselves. Instead of. demolishing beautiful buildings like the old museum in Wellington, why not utilise them, even if not ideal for the purpose, until such time as a substantial one can be erected which will last and not a wooden erection covered with felt and plaster and presumably a tin roof, costing twice as much in the end? Painting, repairs and depreciation in twenty years would more than offset the extra initial cost. O. S. SWTXXOCK.