THE PROPOSED TOWN HALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 4

THE PROPOSED TOWN HALL.

Sir, —Mr. 11. .1. Blvlli's letter interested me. It shows mi excellent condition of mind which is by no means peculiar to your eorrespondeni. .Mr. Hlylli wishes the » question of tin' site for tin' proposed Town - Hall to Im> discussed in your columns. He, r in common with every sensible man ia f Auckland, quite ignores the fuel, thai a site -"'' 1 has been chosen, and that a firm of arehLi ' - tects aro preparing working plans to enable . the City Council to call for tenders for the r proposed triangular edifice now generally r known as "The, Auckland Flat Iron." Mr. o Myth's suggestion have much to rccornt mend them. Personally i am not eon- - corned in finding or even in suggesting i> another or other sites for our chief niuni- -• eipal building. A handsome town hall, :l to cost, uny, £100.000, crept cd in Albert £ Park and facing the harliottr would indeed e be a crown to the city, but. that, is as the e ratepayers will. Of .sites there are plenty - better than the distorted acclivity chosen. J Prince Albert College grounds were recetit- !- ly offered to the City Council by Messrs. i) Pi. Arthur and Co., whose minds were evi- :• dently in the .same condition as Mr. I'lyth's. !- Then wo have the market site, the wimid mill site, und the Phil won allotment, all of !- which are, I believe, available. The posi--0 tion of the present, site is good. The site a itself is without question the very worst r that could bo found in Auckland of all - those which nnv sane man could consider, s If it were feasible to ta'J;e in some portion e of Queen-street ar.d erect on it a. building of a suitable charactei it would l>e hard to.persuade Auckland citizens that a better site could be obtained, but to put half our money below the street level into a wedge-shaped allotment of indifferent solidity is more than the intelligent- Auckland rate-payer can stand. I have taken some little trouble to show the people of Auckland what they are going to get for ; their £100,000, for it will cost all that by J ho time it. is finished. The building corf tainlv has a. great advantage of most o'her '* public buildings in that one can see three 0 sides of it at once, and as it is proposed to 1 build the Queen-street facade and the I point of the wedge of stone, and the Grey- * street front in, red brick and stucco, in - an ineffectual effort to wriggle through II within the £80,000, the effect will no doubt 11 be very sweet, and the general result will - give, visitors and local posterily ii splendid ' idea of our a'.-thetic delicacy in the matter t of architecture Our City Council does many niar\«>il«u* 1 things. Jt has a destructor that i.n-t man? i ! thousands ol pounds, and which from perijfotial observation 1 will guarantee to ret- j move paper from jam tins without injuring t the solder. It, has planted that destructor ' within a few feet of one of tin.' citv'.s lungs, J j Victoria Park, and in such a jzO-.ition that ~ • the prevailinir wind- see to it thai the ; "lung" breathes a large percentage o fear--1 | lionised garbage. It is wasting annually 'thousands of pounds of the ratepayers' - j money by unskilful treatment, of our atro- , j cious streets. Jt is erecting a toy olectrie . plant .somewhere for about JCtS,O or I j £20,000, which toy is doomed, of course-. Ito be in quite a short, time a mere exert**' cence on the proper installation. It wants to turn the most picturesque portion of our beautiful foreshore. into a .•.(•wage Mink, and now, not satisfied with all these won- |) dors, it, wants to give us a bridge, with -i . twenty-six foot roadway, which is to take • .. the place of Kliyber Pass for vehicular s l traffic, and a town hall resembling nothing so much as a wedge of cheese or the last p cut in a batch of home-made scones. Fortunately amusement enters more lar/eiy '.J than anger into my reflections on the ways 'of this wonderful body. Were ir other- " Hwise, I am afraid that I. should be temp'od l ' ! to be very serious when dealing with their p remarkable works, for it. cannot be denied 1 "I that recently we have hid much food fir r ! cogitation in admiring the results of, their _* ineogitativo conduct. It. is, I ixlieve, .n '■'I .Mr. Myth says, well that we should «iiscti 4 "- n I the question of sites. The whole matter _j will come tin again soon, and 110 harm , s can result from making known the fact '| that, public opinion is strongly against, the present proposal. We want good streets J and drainage much more than we do a t; ; town hall. l-'o-.v ratepayers h&ve noticed 0 that £40.000, nearly double the usual ' amount, is to lv spent on streets this veir, 'I and how many of tlum h:ne thanked the roast sehtmpper which certainty ic-ed- i_ ;; rl j influence to this very desirable end? Vie " are told that we must " scrimp," slid -have 'j to build our flat iron for £30,000. We do "I not build a town hall every day, nor lie ' we build if foi a decade. Our "great ' hall" is being made much tr.o small (or ° what we shall within a few years require eon great occa.-iens. We should. i ; neee--s;i,y spend £150,000, but lei n- when w»» ' • have spent it have something to look* « ! • and admire instead of merely an aurieu- , lated aggravat ion. P. A. Vait.S. | —