New complex opened

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 4

New complex opened

Christchurch’s new Na- When the T. and G. .. i m rnntrP hp Mutual Life Society built its tional. Mutual Centre, b oposed shopping centre in tweeri Hereford Street and “Triangle,” a bridge High Street, was officially wou ld be built from the first onened yesterday by the floor across to the first floor Minister of Housing (Mr of , the National Mutual Quigley). Arcade. People would then As ; yet, two complete be able to walk from the floors of the seven-storey Cashel Street carpark building are not leased, through the arcade, over to Seven shops, as well as the the triangle, and probably on restaurant in the building’s to D.1.C.-Beaths over another ground floor and first floor bridge from the T. and G. arcade, are still empty, al- building. though the arcade has been Mr Bates declined to say opened since last August, who had taken out a lease However, lease agreements on the restaurant area. He have been signed for the said he was “a leading restaurant and four of the Christchurch chef. _ shops, according to the com- In his speech, Mr Quigley pany’s national property said that the Government manager, Mr D. Bates, and had not lifted requirements the leasing manager, Mr J. for life insurance invesments Collinson. •. in housing because it beMr Bates said that al- lieved the investments '■ though there was still empty helped the availability of 1 space in the building, the housing finance and the sta- • company had reason to be bility of the building inconfident about its future. dustry.

On the subject of tax exemptions for policy holders, he said that in Australia it had been found that this reduced the tax base but did not necessarily increase the number of policies sold. The National * Mutual building was designed by the Christchurch firm of architects, Warren and Mahoney, and was built by Fletcher Two units from the Christchurch Fire Service spent more than five hours yesterday morning damping down hot spots at the McTeigues Road rubbish dump in Halswell. The fire had been extinguished on Sunday afternoon and had flared up again on Monday, but a check at 8.30 a.m. yesterday revealed that there were still more hot spots. A bulldozer was used to put out the fires.