POST OFFICE SITE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13673, 14 February 1908, Page 6

POST OFFICE SITE.

ANOTHER..'-CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ~....,. DISCUSSION'. -"" ' " ;. ■'• At the-meeting of the council of >, the Auckland Chamber of Commerce yesterv. day 'afternoon ■ a letter -was read from '.-',• the Postmaster-General (Sir' Joseph Ward) stating in answer to the Chamber's inquiry- \. regarding the site of the new post office that "it has been definitely deciiid to erect .* .■ building on the railway■; land fronting Lower - Queen-street." '■ • '....- The President of the Chamber (Mr. NY ...Alfred Nathan) said that he had interviewed Sir Joseph Ward on the subject, and had pointed out that there'were serious objections on the part of many busi- . ness people to the post office being erected bo far from the business centre. In reply, Sir Joseph Ward had informed him that the question had been fully gone into by ','.,■',.;' himself and by the officials of the Depart- ■ ' ment, who came tip from Wellington for the purpose of going into the matter, and | the decision arrived at was that the rail- j way station site was the best that could possibly be obtained. The only alternative '. site'was that of the Victoria Arcade, but .. the price asked was prohibitory, whilst the cost of the necessary ■ alterations would / also be very great. "At the same 'time"the ; : present owners of that site were very much opposed to selling it. There was, thcrei fore, no alternative but to erect the building on the railway site. Sir Joseph Ward had also informed him that, there was no. foundation for the statement" that the rail- ' , way authorities were averse to the rail-' * way site being chosen for the post office; aa they had been consulted in the first place. The private boxes and the telephone department as well as the telegraph department would remain in the present building in Shbrtland-'+reet, and the two , buildings would be connected.by the pneumatic tube system. ■ .'Mr. J. H. Upton said it was very Tinwise to erect a. post office over a railway station entrance, but he was glad there ,;■:'■ would,. be some relief, as otherwise the convergence of the entire postal and railway traffic at one spot might prove very in- : convenient. • ■.-■ The President said that he thought separate entrances and exits would be proTided. . • ' Mr. S. J. Nathan said he did not think | the private letter-boxes could be retained I . it the present building. Mr. L. J. Bagnall considered that posting '■■'■-■ .;,'.boxes might be left at the present building. . . V ~- The President' said .the Poatmaster-Gene-ral may have referred to the posting boxes v ind not the private boxes. 1 Mr. Barth.- Kent- believed that the - Government were fully alive to the * requirements of Auckland, - and that they would provide adequate postal as well as railway facilities. ':■■"■■ '-:«-•" ;' •'-,.."-;.■ i: --■">' ;-•' -V ■.;>■..-'■. :