New Law Courts Building

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22335, 24 February 1938, Page 8

New Law Courts Building

Astonishingly little evidence was available to the meeting, convened by the Mayor of Christchurch, on the nature of the Government’s plans for the new law courts and offices in the city; and the absence of evidence is one of the causes for disquiet. Even the council of the Canterbury Law Society, which knows more than an/ other interested body, seems to have been bound by some pledge of secrecy in its discussion of the plans with the Minister, as the president, Mr K. M. Gresson, indicated that he could say nothing while matters continued to be discussed. Unfortunately, this threatens the possibility that the issues may not be known until they have been decided; and issues upon which “ long discussions ” have been held and which are “ still going on ” are not likely to be trivial or remote from public concern. His Worship the Mayor reported to the meeting a “rumour” that the proposed entrance to the new building is from Durham street; Mr G. T. Weston suggested, without drawing a contradiction, that no elevation plans have yet been made available. If this is so, then it seems to follow that, while the council of the Law Society has learned something, confidentially, about the proposed interior design of the building and may be influencing its' final form, everything else about the city’s most important new architectural feature, on one of its finest sites, remains a mystery, and a mystery which, as time passes and work' on the plans presumably advances, is steadily more likely to be unveiled as a settled project, alterable, if at all, only in minor respects. On such an assumption, which is necessary, the Mayor’s letter from the Minister for Justice, promising to make the plans available as soon as possible, offers only a weak assurance to the city against the risk of mistakes that will confront and vex and disappoint the citizens of the next century. Tuesday’s meeting will, no doubt, warn the Minister that anxiety is widespread and deep; but it might have expressed this anxiety in one respect, at least, more definitely. It is disquieting that the nature and progress of the plans are so obscure. It is a deeper cause of disquiet that they are in the hands of the Public Works Department. The department may claim, and has, a very full measure of public confidence; but it has not earned the confidence that may as serenely leave it to design a public building of firstclass dignity as to design a viaduct or a dam.