PUBLIC SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 46, 23 August 1938, Page 10

PUBLIC SERVICE

FINDING ROOM

GREATER STATE ACTIVITY

NEW WOODEN BUILDING

One of the most difficult problems within the Government service of recent years has been that of providing accommodation for the different departments. It is not a problem easy of solution, for it is quite one thing to decide on, say, an additional 30,000 square feet of floor space and another to get it in a way which will meet all requirements. It is common knowledge that in Wellington the position has been very acute. Departments have grown and others have been created and this expansion has had the effect of making heavy demands on the available accommodation. In fact, long ago the,position was reached when in Government buildings themselves there was not sufficient space to accommodate certain.of the departments or sections of them with the result that private premises had to be rented. At the present time the position is not as acute' as it was, but nevertheless, it is quite bad enough.

During the past twelve months or so the situation ■ has been eased to some extent, and'there are distinct prospects of the' position in' the future being further improved. The completion of the railway station building is one way in which the accommodation problem has been relieved up to a point. The transference of railway officers to the new station . building from the big brick building across the way in Featherston Street made premises avail-' able there, for the removal of Army Headquarters from Buckle Street. Recently the Wellington district office arid head office staffs of the Government Life Insurance Department moved from the temporary premises which they had occupied for some time in Featherston Street to their new building in Customhouse Quay. In this case their temporary premises in Featherston Street remain vacant and it seems unlikely that they will be taken by any other section of the service. Later on the Government Life building will further relieve the pressure on accommodation, for in this building, as announced in "The Post" recently, a number of other Government departments are to be located, among them being the Tourist, Internal Marketing, Commercial Broadcasting, part of the P. and T., National : Provident, Superannuation, Valuation, and Public Service Commissioners (part). Most of these departments at the present time are scattered almost from one end of the city to the other. When the time comes for them to move into their new premises in the Government Life Building, the offices which they at present occupy no doubt will be taken either in whole or in part to house other s sections of the service, and so in this way the tax on accommodation will be further ameliorated. WORK IN HAND. There will be still greater easing of the situation when the new dental clinic in Upper Willis Street, the additions to the State Fire and Accident Insurance building, the Post and Telegraph Department building on the reclaimed area near the Boat Harbour, 3 and the big Government office block ] in Stout Street,- near the Supreme 1 Court building, are completed, but it ] will be some time yet befors the new ( Government building and the new P. and T. building, which combined will j afford the greatest measure of relief, ? are ready for occupation. Delays in i the delivery of certain of the steel ] required have retarded progress on i the Government- office block, which, but for this, would have been in a i very much more advanced stage of ] construction. This building and the Post and Telegraph building will, as ( already indicated, go' a long way to- < wards easing the situation, but they < are as yet a long way off completion, i and the present needs are such that other ways of relieving the situation i have been under consideration. BIG WOODEN BUILDING. } One of these was a decision to put up a substantial, though it is stated j non-permanent, building in Aitken , Street, which runs off Molesworth Street and carries a tram loop. There, ] on a big area, an extensive structure j is going up. The job was taken in y hand in October of last year, but owing to difficulty in obtaining ready \ delivery from Australia of the big j hardwood beams for the frame, progress has been hindered, though latterly the work has gone ahead more rapidly. Concrete foundations with a basement over portion of the area have been put in, so that later, if required, a building in more modern materials may be erected. Although, t however, the present structure is in \ wood —an unusual spectacle in these r days in the case of a big building— c it is being constructed on lines and t on a standard vastly different from c the Base Records building, alongside s the Government Buildings, which was i; erected as a war-time expedient and i nothing else but has remained ever t since. Very hqavy timber, steel shoes, s and bolts (plenty of them) are being ti used, and though it is being erected i as a non-permanent structure, it has

the appearance of being a solid job and as such it probably will be well used. It is not being built with one long front and in such' a way that it will cover the whole area, for the plans provide for light wells and a broken front line, the ground plan resembling something like an "E" in shape. The wings, at either end of the "E" are to be three storeys high, the centre piece is to be four storeys in height, and the sections between the two ends and the centre piece are tp go up two storeys. The framework of the western wing or the end nearest Molesworth Street is well advanced but at the present rate of progress it will' probably be some time in February or March before the building is completed. Exclusive of corridors it will have a floor area of 40,000-odd square feet. WHO WILL OCCUPY IT? There is a good <.3al of speculation as to which Departments will occupy this wooden structure. No official information on the point could be obtained today. Mention has been made of the Health and Education Departments being in the building, and since the Social Security Bill has been before the public. not unnaturally the building, or part of it at any rate, has been associated with these proposals. The Health, Pensions, and Employment Departments, no doubt, for the administration of the Social Security plan, will. require to be co-ordinated and the personnel increased, and, if that is so; special provision will have to be iade. CROWN PURCHASES. Other steps that have been taken in connection with the provision of additional accommodation, and also the plan of centralising Government offices as far as possible, have been the purchases by the Crown within the last two years of the Bowen Street Hospital, Arcadia Hotel, and quite recently Caulfield House, a large boarding establishment in Sydney Street East. It has been announced that only 4he annexe of Caulfield House is to be taken over by the Crown immediately, and that the main section is to continue as a boarding-house for.another two years. In view of this and the important question of public accommodation for visitors during the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in a little more than a year's time, it seems hardly likely that the Government will be interfering until after the Exhibition with the Arcadia Hotel building as a place of lodging. When the Bowen Street Hospital was acquired it was stated, unofficially, that it was probable that it would be used ultimately to house the Public Works Department. It has continued as a private hospital, and the advent of the social security plan may perhaps rather alter ideas^ as to the use of the hospital for office* purposes. Other building plans which the Government has in mind concern the provision of a broadcasting centre behind Parliament House and the erection of a new Government Printing Office, close to the present building. If and when all that is planned is completed, apart from the work already in hand, the accommodation problem should no longer be so acute.