GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13718, 27 April 1910, Page 6

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS IN CHRISTCHURCH.

The Government's action in connection with the erection of the new Customs Office in Christchurch is a striking example of the " penny wise and pound "foolish" policy. It must be nearly two years sine© the Government bought tho site of the proposed offices* it is certainly a yeftr since the design" of the building- waa completed, and so far, nothing more has been done..- Government offices aro still scattered, literally, all over the place, to th© continual inconvenience of "the public, and a large proportion of them . aro in rented buildings, tho aggregate rente being . estimated to amount .to £1200 a year. In addition to this sum, th© interest on the cost of the site, -£21,000. must amount to at least £800 a year, for which, _o far, no one is one penny the better. When apf;roached last year with a request that th© erection of the building _hould be put in hand at once, a Minister explained that the. Go-vornmeht woreupending £90,000 each on post offices at Wellington and* Auckland, and could not undertake any more works of the BOtt just then. AY© still hold, as wo said then, that it would have been more economical to begin tho work at once, and avoid the present wasteftil system of housing the Government departments. Invercargill is to have its scattered Government office* put under one xoof, a big twostorey building in brick having been

designed for the purpose. It is to cost £10.000, -and is to be put in hand at once. There is no adequate -reason for preferential treatmqnt being accorded to Invercargill in this matter, hut itgood fortune forms an excellent *precedent for the same action being taken in Christchurch. We trust that the necessity for work being found for the unemployed, such -s existed last winter, will not arise this year. But c\en without this inducement thero should be no more delay, and Mr Taylor's letter to the Minister for Public Works should remind him of the desirableness of getting to work at once.