Bank Of New Zealand Replies To Criticism

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30313, 13 December 1963, Page 18

Bank Of New Zealand Replies To Criticism

The original building proposals for the Bank of New Zealand in Christchurch were dictated largely by consideration of finance, said the district manager of the bank (Mr W. L. J. Travers) yesterday. He was replying to correspondents to “The Press" complaining about waste of money in putting up a building and then knocking down a large part of it. Like any other trading concern, the bank did not have unlimited capital for the erection of buildings. Mr Travers said, and requirements throughout New Zealand were very heavy. “It was only the quite recent development of the pur-chase-lease back method of building finance, coinciding with the availability of funds to the Bank of New Zealand Officers’ Staff Provident Association, a separate entity from the bank, which enabled the association to lend money to the bank to rebuild completely instead of doing a partial job and being faced with much more costly additions and alterations in, say. 10 years, with a final result which would in no way compare with the building to be erected now,” Mr Travers said. “It is unavoidable that the work already done is having to be altered to conform with the planning of the new building, but we are satisfied that any expenditure in this connexion will be far more than recompensed by the ultimate gain derived from the more profitable use of the site."

The bank was sorry for the inconvenience and discomfort which work on the site was causing adjoining owners and business people, Mr Travers said. The contractors had been asked to do everything possible to minimise this and could be relied on to cooperate to the maximum: but, of course, there was a limit to what they could do. It was expected that the worst of the noise nuisance would be over very soon, and the bank felt that the temporary discomfort of the rebuilding period would be more than compensated for

by the benefit the surrounding area would gain from the new building. Three letters to the editor were dealt with in Mr Travers’s reply. One, from "Colonial,” said the bank was Government-owned and the cost of the “shocking bungle” would be met by the taxpayer eventually. Another correspondent. “Public Funds,” asked for the real reason behind “this apparent waste of public money.”

“Pickwick” asked whether a covered way or arcade would be provided to link Cathedral square and Hereford street.

When the plan for the new bank and an accompanying article were printed in “The Press” several months ago it was reported that there would be a shopping arcade on the ground floor.

Demolition Near End A week’s demolition work remains on the Bank of New Zealand building in Cathedral square. The most tedious part of the job for the contractors, the destruction of the vault of the old bank building, is proceeding slowly. The removal of parts of the uncompleted new building to key into the plans for a larger structure, is almost finished. A doorway in the Square will be removed. but the spare columns and concrete floors will remain almost as they are now left.