The Press Wednesday, November 12, 1930. The Square.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20083, 12 November 1930, Page 10

The Press Wednesday, November 12, 1930. The Square.

Little need be said about the legal proceedings yesterday, when the Chief Justice, dealing with an application that tiie order of the Court concerning Cathedral square should issue, adjourned the application until the end of February, This gives the City Council time to take possession of the building bought for rest-rooms, etc., and to advance the plans for alterations and refitting; and if full use is made of the time, the order will be further delayed, but not beyond June 20th, when the present tramway shelter must be removed. If the Council delays or is delayed in taking possession, or does not "proceed with due expedi- •' tion " to prepare the new rest-rooms, then on three days' notice yesterday's application may be renewed. This moans that the Council is being given all possible consideration and that the notice long ago served upon it has been extended to a date remote enough to disallow any reason for unreadiness. Nobody will blame the Council, of course, for trying to lengthen the interval before the shelter is removed; at least, nobody will blame it, if satisfied that the Council merely wants to make sure of having new rest-rooms ready before the old ones disappear, and does not want to temporise, in the hope of not having to comply after all. reason Mr Loughnan's assurance that the Council is " quite will- " ing " and is even " anxious " to carry out the order is valuable and welcome; and if the Council were the only body interested in the order it would perhaps be possible to wait for the end of February and for June 20th without any apprehension, though foolish to withdraw attention. The Tramway Board, however, if it is as " willing " as the Council to let the shelter go, will clear up the position by plainly saying so and by disavowing, more explicitly than the chairman does in his statement printed to-day, any intention of trying to keep it. The Board has said little or nothing. Continued silence will seem very like calculated silence, and the only thing the Board could be planning, under cover of silence, would be an attempt to persuade Parliament to legalise the existing state of the Square. The Chief Justice said yesterday that he did not think Parliament would interfere, and he may be right, though it would be lamentable if the future of the Square rested on nothing more secure than Parliament's discretion. But what the BoartJ must be made to understand, if it does not understand already, is that it will be outrageously in the wrong if it seeks Parliamentary relief from the order. The public expects it to be carried out and will strongly resent- and resist any attempt to dodge it-