NEW PRINTING OFFICES

Grey River Argus, 1 September 1938, Page 11

NEW PRINTING OFFICES

FOR THE GOVERNMENT. WELLINGTON, August 31.; The Minister in charge of the Printing and Stationery Department (the Hon. P. C. Webb), during consideration of the Estimates of the Department in the .Hoiise of Representatives, gave particulars of the new Government Printihg Office to be erected in Wellington. “The new printing office will be a building of seven storeys,” said Mr. Webb. “It will contain 260,162 square feet, as compared with 100,217 square feet in the. present buildihg. . The building will be a monument to the city, and not one bit too big for tne work that has to be done by tne department. The estimated cost of, the building is £580,000. The materials used will be steel and concrete, and when completed' the buildihg will be one of the most modern, structures .in Australia or New. Zealand. Provisional plans have been completed,- and working drawings are now under prepaMr.loWebb said the site on which the new printihg office was *to be erected was about one acre in area. Sites in other parts of the city had been investigated; but the unanimous opinion of experts in the Public Works Department and in the printing and stationery department was that the site selected was the most suitable. • “The present Government Printing Office is a disgrace to the country," said Mr. Webb. “I gfet the creeps every time I go through the building. Overcrowding is bad, 1 and men, women, boys and girls are working under conditions that are not cive either to good work or the best of health. Steps have been taken to improve the amenities of the old building as far as possible.