COLLEGE ACCESS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 80, 5 April 1933, Page 8

COLLEGE ACCESS

A CURIOUS TANGLE SUGGESTED SOLUTION NOT WELL RECEIVED

The question of access to the Wellington. Technical College, opened, in a mildly spectacular manner by the Fletcher Construction Company's announcement that it proposed to fence off the area on which the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum are to be built, so cutting off the college from Buckle and Tasnian Streets, has turned out to bo rather a worrying problem. i Yesterday a conference was held between the Minister.of Internal Affairs, the Hon. J. A. Young, Mr. G. A. Troup, representing the Art Gallery and, Museum Board of Trustees, and Mr. Ws H. Bennett, chairman, and. other members of the Technical College Board. The college board 'submitted three suggestions: — ■ (1) That .the space between the entrance steps of the college • and the temporary fence erected by the building contractor, approximately 70 feet wide, from the western boundary to at least a point where the access from Tasman Street joins the college area, should be handed over to the college board. (2) That the right-of-way from Tasman Street should also be conveyed to tho college board. (3) That a strip of land, say 8 feet ■yvide, should be granted to the college as a right of access from Buckle Street on the western boundary of the National Art Gallery and Museum area. , ... NO ACCESS FROM BUCKLE STREET. The conference was held in committee, but subsequently a statement was made that in view/ of extensions of the Museum area bei,ng necessary in the future, the Board of. Trustees could not consider the proposed right-of-way fro.ni Buckle Street, but the board had at'no time expressed any intention of stopping the right, of access from Tasman Street. However, to enable the Technical College to have adequate access, the proposal was made that an area of one acre and three-quarters facing Tasman Street, ahel including the present right-of-way, and a strip of about 60 feet in front of the college should be exchanged for approximately half an acre facing Buckle Street upon which the* present police station and inspector's residence stand. This scheme would provide space for police residences and at the same time would enable a road to be made to connect Tasman Street with the present car-riage-way through to Hankey Street. The increased width would facilitate the-entry and exit of students from the college. ■■'■.• NO PROVISION MADE FOR ACCESS. From conversations today ' with members of the Board of Trustees and of the Technical College Board, a"Post" reporter gathered that there is a distinct difference of opinion as to the.acceptability of the proposal made byxthe Board Of Trustees, though bo^h sides are agreed that the present state of affairs, in which, the college has no legal front door,access, must be remedied. The only direct access to the college is through a short right-of-way from. Hankey Street to the back of the buildings,- for the access from Buckle Street and also from Tasman Street, which have been far more used than tho Hankey Street right-of-way, are both over land vested in the Board of Trustees. - ■

The tangle goes back several years, for in some way or other., the question of access was largely overlooked in tie negotiations between the college authorities and the several Government Departments, officers, and Ministers when tho college authorities were given authority to build the new college, it being taken for granted, apparently, that the access question would more or less solve itself. More and more was the .position made more tangled by the fact that the Technical College is built so close up to the northern boundary of college land that the front steps actually encroach over the boundary, and ; on: the/ western side it appears that the building extends about thirty feet on to land shown on the plans as the property of^ th© Imperial Government. ■

Probably the access question would have been left to. solve itself for a little longer had not the contractors for the national group decided to force the removal of an empty Police Department building, east of the campanile, to enable them to use a better graded roadway over which to haul the heavy material to: be used.in tho building of the Art Gallery and Museum. The. action proposed by them was to enclose- the whole building area with a six-foot fence,, which would, incidentally, cut off all access between Buckle and Tasman Streets and the college. The posts are up, but nothing further has been done, for.the contractors-are concerned merely with obtaining better access. They, of 'course, do not wish to deimve the students of the most convenient access. ' The peculiar circumstances merely afforded them a splendid talking poinft The right to fence in the whole building area still exists.