THE TOWN HALL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17390, 30 January 1917, Page 5

THE TOWN HALL.

jIIANCHISTER STREET OFFER,

{'FURTHER DISCUSSION BY CITY i ■■

COUNCIL.

j ELECTRICITY DEPARTMENT. SEPARATE EXPENSIVE BUILDING PROPOSED. i . "■ ■ ■ ■ The Town Hall question was debated fin .the City Council last night, the discussion being divided largely into •three phases/namely, the purchase of Canterbury Hall as a civic headquarters; the erection of the nucleus of a Town Hall in Victoria Square, and the prection of a separate building at a cost of £7565 for the electrical department. . i ■> • THE CANTERBURY HALL. ../The matter!was first brought up hy -the receipt of a letter from the Canterbury Hall Company, stating that the ■shareholders had confirmed and approved of the offer of the directors to .sell the hall to the city. . The Finance Committee recommended that a proposal should be submitted ,to the ratepayers for a loan of £27.(XX for the purchase of the Hall property «nd the carrying out of the alterations requisite to make the property suitable and convenient for -Jse as municipal offices. It was suggested that the Joan should be secured by a special Site of a twelfth of a penny m the ■& together with the revenue from the hall, the loan to have a currency of

thepollwas fi^edas i-fSunciilor J. the loan should he reduced to &"»««, ' parking that the full .«J«"fcj£ contemplated the erection of an elecfen-

W « ! S fi s>d not raise the whole tamnunt " said the Mayor. We should decide what interest we y |ay on the loan,"- said Councillor J. B. *" The ratepayers will be very foolish to raise fiSsJoO or £27,000' said Councillor J. M'Combs, who added, in reply to protests that he was out or order in discussing the principle, that the matter had) been put through in committee, and it would be a scandal it standing orders were invoked for_ the purpose of withholding the facts from the public. . ■ . _ The Mayor said that Councillor M'Comba for once in his life did not know what he; was talking about. The tnatter had been submitted conndeniially and had to he so treated. - ' The clause for the full amount of '£27,000 was adopted, with, a proviso 'that £IO.OOO should bear not more than CJ per cent interest. AN ELECTRICAL LOAN.

'-, Another phase of the matter was orought up on receipt of a report from the Town Hall Committee that having reconsidered the question of erecting a building for the electrical department it was of opinion that the building was Iss'sential for the efficient conduct of the business and recommended that the work should he proceeded with. In ■order to reduce the cost the committee had instructed Mr Stark and Mr Dawe to ascertain what work could be cut out of the building, and to furnish an estimate of what the saving would \>e. The Wo lowest, tenderers were Mien asked to revisetheir ..tenders on, the

amended plans and. specification,<, the jcsult being that Mr George White was now the lowest tenderer at £7565, and the committee recommended that his 'tender should bo accepted. Councillor M'Combß moved that the. report should be referred back to enable the council to start a real Town Hall in Victoria Square, which would provide for the electrical department, council chambers, city surveyor and so 07). . Tt. was highly probable that the ratepayers would turn down the £27,001) loan, and it would be wise to be rolady then for a Joan proposal of £25,000 for a portion or a real Towns Hall.

"That ■would only nay for the foundations," said Councillor A. S. Taylor. Councillor M'Combs replied that the whole of the foundations would not he" laid at once. He charged the committee Trith heing faithless to its main duty. To take, the present contract price and add to it the cost of altering Victoria Hall, with another £IO,OOO would pro/ido the funds for the nucleus of a real Town Hall in Victoria Square. As \ was, a sum .of'£l7,ooo out of £27,000 war/ 'going to ho spent.on building alterations at a time when euch work was dear. Ho commended the council to the proposals nut forward in the " Lyttclton Times."* Councillor D. G. Sullivan said that ae disliked alternatives, for they usually killed any scheme, as in the case af the municipal market. He liked the Canterbury Hall _ proposition better than the alternative. The city was going to he faced soon with anything up to a million pounds on an adequate drainage system, not to mention toads and water supply, and it was foolish ■Bo look forward to a Town Hall costing £120,000 or £150,000. The Mayor, in urging the adoption of the report, said that the committeo had decided unanimously that the electrical department must be separate and Histinct from a Town Hall, for it would be absurd to. ha.ve drays coming and going from the town hall with loads of cables and poles, and so on. The .new building would house all the electrical offices under one roof at an added cost of only £2lB. He was' not yet in a position to put the -whole matter before the council, but he believed.that the Canterbury Hall proposition would sffect a saving of £286. Councillor Burgoyne moved that the ilectrical building should be held over until the Town Hall project -was sot- • Jed.

Councillor H. F. Herbert urged that) fhe Canterbury Hall scheme should include the electrical department. Councillor W. H. Cooper said that }he loan of £7OOO would prejudice the oan for the hall.

After further desultory discussion me report was adopted by 11 votes to