NEW BUILDINGS FOR N.Z.B.S.

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27636, 18 April 1955, Page 10

NEW BUILDINGS FOR N.Z.B.S.

ESTIMATED COST £200,000

MINISTER’S REPLY TO CORRESPONDENT

The proposed new building m Christchurch for the New Zealand Broadcasting Service is estimated to cost £200,000, accord!to a letter from the Minister in chc.; ■’c of Broadcasting, Mr R. M. Algie, in reply to a correspondent of “The Press.” The letter written by the corresSondent, Ivan Horsley, says:—“ls not odd that while the New Zealand Broadcasting Service extends its policy of linking programmes by landlines, thereby tending towards a homogeneity rather than a diversity of programmes, it should at the same time be pressing for the erection in Christchurch of a large new broadcasting house? How many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, will this white elephant cost? Is not this one further example of the obsession of the present Government for building imposing institutions while neglecting the quality of the human and intellectual material they house? This profligacy should be knocked on the head. The present buildings are quite adequate. The money would be much better spent on founding either a school of dramatic art or a conservatorium of music, both of which are badly needed, and which, if established, might raise us from the torpoi of complacent mediocrity into which we have undoubtedly lapsed.” In his reply Mr Algie says:—“The proposed building will not cost millions; the provisional estimate does not reach £200,000. The result will be that the Commercial Division and the National Division of the Service will be economically housed in one adequate building instead of in two inadequate ones, as at present, and greater administrative and functional efficiency will be secured. There is nothing odd at all in developments which are alike and consistently directed to the listener’s and licensee’s advantage and are both paid for from revenue and capital resources of the Broadcasting Service itself.’’