NEW PARLIAMENT HOUSE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1394, 21 March 1912, Page 7

NEW PARLIAMENT HOUSE.

SITE PREPARATION. The grounds of old Government House are fast losing their triinness and beauty under the hands of the employees of the Public Works Department, who are preparing the site for the new Parliament Buildings. A swathe of destruction has been-carried from tho northern face of the present Parliament buildings to tho Sydney Street boundary. Flower-beds have given place to unsightly excavations— already'a'great deal of soil has been shifted— and vthe garden walks are being ploughed up by, heavily-laden drays, a wide trench, is being dug, which will receive the foundation for a part of the front elevation of the new building. It rrins on a line which, if continued, would be, roughly, on the same vertical piano as the front of tho old Parliamentary b'uiiuings. - The "turned sods," which one sarcastic critic of the party in power miggestol, would be left as a legacy to their Successors'in office, are lying about in plenty. Some of them aro neatly rolled rnu piled in heaps. Carpenters aro already at work Building up' a boxing from the foundation trench for'the reception of concrete, and altogether a remarkable transformation has been effected in tho appearance of the grounds in tne •brief period that has elapsed since the works commenced.

Oh the east face of the present Parliament Buildings a temporary platform has been erected in readiness for Saturday's ceremony; when the foundation-stone of the nev buildings -is to be laid by his Excellency the Governor. All the work of proparing the foundations' will be carried out by the Public Works Department. It, is proposed, later on, to call tenders for the orection of the building.

.■ CLOSING OF STREETS. In a letter to-the Editor; a correspondent Tesurrects a matter that was considered of importance at tho time when the Government's plans first took shape. He writes:

"It would seem that in the carrying out of. .the closing of Sydney and Museum Streets the convenience of residents is likely to be as eomplotely ignored as was the caso when the preposterous arrangement, was first entered into; if what has appeared in the press has been correctly interpreted, botli streets are to he closed in the near future, while the formation and opening for traffic of the extension of Wellington Terrace to give access to the Western end of Sydney Street will be left to the next generation. The effect of; these manoeuvres will be to bottle up the ratepayers living west of Museum Street for an indefinite period with . alternative routes to the city via Kelburne or Tinakori Road. Landlords will. Slid their tenants apt to get cold feet under such conditions; and if another fire occurs in the neighbourhood it will take tho brigade even longer to find that there is no pressure of water in that part of the town.' If it has not occurred to the . Government officials that it would be advisable to provido access by the new street before blocking the existing thoroughfares it is reasonable to supposo that the City Council may omit to make that point clear -to them. Ono of the worst features of tho transaction is that after the whole block has been dismantled and • turned into an unsightly waste, operations will no doubt cease for a lengthy period running perhaps into years; that is what happened in Sydney Street before, when a site was hurriedly prepared for a Departmental building; there is no building, and the site remains an eyesore and a receptacle for dead cats." It was understood yesterday that the matter mieht bo considered by the Finance Committee of the City Council for reporting to the council. The question is important, and is of some urgency in view of the fact that the foundation stono of the new buildings is to bo laid on Saturday by his Excellency tho Governor.