The Press SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1962. Offices For Drainage Board

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29803, 21 April 1962, Page 10

The Press SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1962. Offices For Drainage Board

The Christchurch Drainage Board would save itself a great deal of trouble if it would say unequivocally that its proposed new offices would not prejudice the continuity of sewer-con-struction work. Can the board say this? The finance committee has suggested, without being explicit, that the money the board can raise from the sinking funds of other local authorities for an office building could not be used for sewer contracts. Why? The board has only recently tried (though unsuccessfully) to borrow further from the National Provident Fund as an emergency measure for sewer contracts. Why should it have expected the fund to be more accommodating than another local authority to which the board proposes to offer something in return from its own sinking fund? The inefficiency of the board's present accommodation is clear enough and is a good reason for early action; but the board does not appear to have considered any alternatives to building its own offices, though the completion of several large city blocks in the next few years could offer new opportunities. We are not so concerned about the comfort of the board’s staff; they are much less inconvenienced than citizens

who have been waiting; years for sewers. A good argument for building the board’s own offices, designed for its special needs, at this time is its belief that competition among big construction firms is now keen. But the chances are that it will be keener next year, and that the competition for labour will be less intense. In seeking loan authority now the board probably intends no more than to put itself into a position to take advantage of any opportunity to get a building at a satisfactorily low price—but the price advantage would have to be considerable to justify any break in the continuity of sewer work, with the risk that contractors and men might leave the trade. This is a question of delicate timing, in which the board is not expected, as Mr E. V. Smith appeared to believe, to delay its building until every house in the area is connected to a sewer —a time that will probably never arrive. The most the board is asked to do is to hold its hand until the easing of a financial stringency that may make the new building possible only at the expense of an interruption of its sewer programme. If, as the board seems to think, that easing may come in a few months, well and good. But sewers should come first.