MOVING ALONG

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 72, 26 March 1928, Page 10

MOVING ALONG

ItTHE SHOW BUILDING [TO BE READY THIS YEAR THE FINANCES When at the beginning of this year the first contracts were let for preliminary excavation work on the site, just off John street, _ ■ for the permanent home of the ■-■ Wellington Show Association, and ■ when at the same time it was confi- ■ dently stated that the new building would be ready for the 1928 show — . in; August—rather more people doubted than credited the possi- . bility of so early a completion. During the past month or so, however, rather remarkable progress has been made in the heavy .work of the site preparation, and now tho first 'foundation piles are being iriveri. '?here appears to bo a very good chance that this year's show will bo hold in tho new building, but it' is too much to expect that there will be time enough to make a job of the surrounding grounds for this year's show. That will come later. Whether the John street site is as well placed as itjoiight be is a question that may be.argued at fine length, but the argument -will-avail nothing; the fact was that the John-street site— abominably ,ugly, unpleasant, moreover, by its rubbish tip associations, and ex-ceedingly-rough, a thoroughly unpromising site, in--.fact —was the one sufficient, area of land which, in spite of its drawbacks, met the mam requirements. Many an unsightly and rather highly perfumed rubbish dump has been transformed eventually to a valuable and attractive area, but twelve months ago the John; street, dump did look rather a tall order:.' Those'who have jmshed forward the scheme have ;had a big store of confidence on which to draw, but to-day they can see daylight, and look forward, still confidently, to the next big problem, that of seeing to it that the. scheme, is so.'operated as to be-financially sound. The first big work, after the plans had been approved: by the Legislature - and the City Council,; was to give the old tip area1 a new outline. The old road from John street up to thb Vogeltown and Mornington area cut right through the land which the Show;. Association.wanted, but negotiations with the City Council and the council's negotiations with -the Government, opened a way for the driving of a new and a better graded ■roud round the area and the throwing of the 'old'road reservation into |he show grounds.."•;'•' The Show Association ■ suggested that, tho deviation should be undertaken as a relief work, offering £1500 towards the cost. A Government subsidy was granted, and tho work was made possible. Tho Show Associa-: ' tion thus had this big job done at a reasonable figure as far.as it was concerned, work was provided for a good many ,men who would, otherwise have been very much lip against it last winter, and a big improvement was mado to the access, road. None of these points the City Council denies,.but that body' has somo regrets that the work cost a good many hundreds moro than was .estimated. 'However, the now road is there. ...... STRAIGHTENING OUT THE SITE. Coineidentally with' the road deviation work a heavy excavation was commenced in a hillock of heavy clay at j the north-eastern, corner of the ground' to form a deep cut which will later be one of the secondary entrances to the show building. This cut is still in hand.: During the last several months, also, a definite plan of tipping of the city's unburnable rubbish has been followed, with an eye to tie regular formation of a great sports ground, cycle track and stadium on the filled-in area immediately below the new road and on the southern side of tho site for the show buildings. More recently humps in various parfcs of the exceedingly uneven site have been tackled and the spoil obtained dumped into hollows, the biggest such filling being at the southeastern corner of the site wliero an ugly gully is being - converted into a level spaco. During show seasons this spaco will be used for outside stands of tho usual variety, and during practically 'the full year, will serve as a playground for the children attending tho now school for the Newtowu district, to be built on land adjoining tho show site. Much heavy excavation has still to be {lone before this corner is levelled out, but when the work is done a very fine playing area will be available to the youngsters. • \ . ' . FIVE ACRES OT FLOOR SPACE. '. The show building, fronting upon «Tohn street, will-consist of one'great floor and two very largo basements, one of which will be used .as storage space for stand fittings, etc., and tho bther as the live stock show space. The total floor space will be about five Seres. At present it is rather difficult for a casual visitor to the site to make out for himself the lines for the finished ■building, but in a few weeks' time the ■ trimming (of knobs will be completed and the outline shown by the eonereta foundations and foundation piles. It is not intended to proceed with the full frontage of the building in time for the 1928 shoW, and tho main entrance this year will be from the side ojE tho building. ''•■:.'■'■' ' Can the-job, be done in time? It looks like asking for -a, lot, notwithstanding the fast progress that has been made so far, but the'building, in wood and iron, and asbestos sheets and iron, will be in the. main a great shell, with only a few of .the thousand or two fittings which slow up the completion of, an office or business block, liven when the building is erected a great deal will still have to be done to the surroundings and the road frontages, but the possibilities of attractive treatment are definitely there The district round about stands to gain a great deal from the decision to place tho building on the old tip. THE UPPER SPORTS GROUND. It is quite impossible for the Show [Association to do anything with tho big upper level spqrts ground this ;year, beyond the steady filling in of this superlatively uglyi' gully, into %vhich are dumped Wellington's discarded tins, tanks, hardware of the widest description, not stopping at one complete 'motor-lorry, which took'the plunge this morning. It is a slow business, but it is hoped that the greater part of the filling will be completed in about twelve' months. A good deal of sinking will take place after the surface is smoothed over, but not enough to prevent the use of this area as a sports ground. Bound the ground a banked elliptical cycle track will.be constructed (four and a half laps to the mile), ant], outside that again will be banks of seats, to accommodate 20,000 people or more. In part these seats will be-constructed on the natural banking, and in part will form the roof of dressing sheds, etc. Apart from cycling,' athletics, and the like, the ground will be a general sports purposes arena. THE FINANCES OF IT. Such ;i. scheme as this now launched by the Show Association runs into „a -big sum of money; will tho scheme be financially sound and successful? The ffiembers of tlu3 association are confident

upon that point; past, experience, under anything but ideal conditions, they maintain, has shown that the public's appreciation and patronage can be relied upon to carry the financial outgoings. An outline of. the finance was given a "Post" reporter to-day by Mr. G. Mitchell, secretary of the association. There are now allotted, he said, debentures totalling £39,600, and £2010 has been sold and will be allotted at the next meeting; an additional £1500 is still to come from the Manufacturers' Association for debentures, a total of £43,100. That left £6990 of the association's authorisation, and of those debentures over £1000 have been applied for, leaving approximately £6000 of the authorisation. About £3000 of the association's own funds had been spent, and there remained £5500 of those funds with the Public Trustee. A further sum of £1500 was to come from the Manufacturers '' Association, and cash at bank brought the total of free capital to something over £7000. The" receipts from the four shows held, continued. Mr. Mitchell, gave a clear profit of £12,000, over and above' outgoings for shed fitting, installation of lighting, additions and alterations, Harbour Board charges, etc., amounting to £5000 in the same period. In the new building, of course, that would be annual charges for the fittings of stands and the like, but they would bo only a tithe of those charges under conditions holding so far. - : ' Interest charges on the first year, said Mr. Mitchell, would be in the vicinity of £2000 (a half-year only), and next year would reach-perhaps £4000, so that if receipts were even merely on the same scale as at past shows the scheme was sound.. . . The association, however, would now have sources of revenue not availablo up.till now. In the past the receipts came from, shows lasting fifteen days of the, year; in its permanent home the association would have a property from which receipts, by rental or otherwise, could come front tho full year round. Sports meetings; and summer and winter games were only some of th© assured sources of revenue. One part of the building, Mr. Mitchell mentioned, had- already been let for the full year round upon terms very satisfactory' to both parties, a»d although the cycle track was still a.long way from completion, already a substantial offer had been received for its yearly rental;; that offer, however, had not been accepted. -