NEW GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 843, 15 June 1910, Page 2

NEW GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE.

i , STILL FAR FROM BEAUTIFUL. 1 To the unprofessional eye, the new vice* I regal residence which is in course of > erection on Mount View is still in very much the same condition as.it was more than a fortnight ago, when a representaj tive of The Dominion was assured that a great change would be visible'in two • weeks' time. It appears quite certain 1 now that the building will not 'be ready • for Lord Islington when he arrives, and - it is probable that he will go first of " all to the Ministerial residence in Moles- • worth Street, where Lord Plnnket had a suite of rooms, or to some other quar--1 ters. Although the Public Works De- ■' partraent professed confidence that tha 5 building would be ready, Lady Islington was wise in her decision not to corns out to New Zealand at the same time aa • her husband, and there is reason to bet lieve that that decision is now a source r of much relief to the Department. Tho ; servants' apartments in the new build- , ing are the most advanced, and the ser- ! rants will at once go into them on their r arrival on June 22. In the rice-regal ■i apartments proper, one notices that tha - principal staircase has now been erected, 3 the rimu wainscoting has been completed . in the dining-room, and the wainscoting . of the main vestibule is almost finished. > Several rooms, however, are still in use - as work-rooms, and there is a general-ap-pearance of litter and incompleteness. It 1 is understood that considerable difficulty has been experienced in obtaining suitable , supplies of paper for the long corridor, t New Zealand .firms, and even thdse of Sydney, do not keep large enough stocks to f provide for these long corridors, sufficient b high-class paper of the same design, and 1 the result is that the corridors, and also j the vice-regal rooms, are still bare. For e the'servants' quarters the Public Works t Department has apparently gono upon the y principle that any wall paper is good t enough. Certainly many of the walls are o covered with patterns which would not e be tolerated by some people in a house ;1 at 255. a week. s But the grounds of the new residence o will be for a long time most objectionable. ~ The drive from Sussex Square is nearly e finished, but it will look very raw and ~ new vrhen Lord Islington arrives, and as s his Excellency .drives up the path he g will have an unaccustomed view of small back-yards whose dingy paling fences alr most line the drive. Immediately behind the house, where trees have been' cut t down for the purpose of forming lawns, the bleeding stumps are for the present s standing at irregular heights, and the t ground is very broken arid, unsightly, o Directly in front of the new house, where a a wing of the asylum formerly stood, the e ground is thickly littered with the debris B of the former building, and it looks ■as ■. if weeks will be needed to make the' sure roundings of tho new residence even 6 moderately presentable. When that has been done it will still bo possible to make great improvements, probably for years to come, by levelling, the ground , and felling-trees so as to give a fuller t view of tho harbour, and by planting Ii other trees which, in course of time, will s conceal the ugliness of crowded, small e back-yards. It seems probable that the & first impression of Lord Islington, upon e viewing the new home provided for him, t will be that after all he has not come to i New Zealand too late to experience some >, of the sensations of a pioneer. e