Bishopdale Shops And P.O. Opened

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 16

Bishopdale Shops And P.O. Opened

At Bishopdale yesterday the Minister of Finance (Mr Lake) opened a new post office and shopping centre which in time is expected to be the hub of a population of 30,000 living within a one-mile radius.

The Minister told about 300 people gathered for the opening that the new post office was the most modern in New Zealand and set in a shopping centre which was the largest of its kind in the South Island. The new post office was built by D. G. Smith and K. A. Clark at a cost of £14,000. It brings the number of post offices in New Zealand to more than 1550. The Minister also opened the new automatic telephone exchange, a few blocks away from the Bishopdale Post Office. The exchange, which came into service on May 13, cost £250,000 and is serving a wide area of the north-west part of Christchurch. The shopping centre Is about half way to full development and is on a site not long ago used for market gardening. It is spaciously laid out with car parking facilities at a safe distance from the shops. Mr Lake said the Post Office was now spending £lO million a year on capital extensions. Of this amount it was finding 50 per cent from its own revenue. He said his special interest in the Post Office was linked to the Post Office Savings Bank, the promotion of which

had been a consistent aim in budgetary policy. If New Zealand wanted to have a high rate of growth it must have a high rate of savings, he said. The Government had been the largest single user of the people’s money and at the end of the last financial year had £428 million of public savings invested in large national projects. Mr Lake said a further £62 million had been saved in other institutions while investments in contractual savings like insurances and building society shares had substantially increased. “This is an indication of our rising prosperity,” he said.