THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1908. OUR PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13798, 10 July 1908, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1908. OUR PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

Auckland is to have a new Post Office, a new Courthouse, and a new University College: but just when nobody knows, least of all the Minister for Public Works. When Mr. Baume brought up these various matters in Parliament, courageously attaching to them the claim for a new railway station, all the information obtainable from Mr. HallJones was that the plans for the Post Office were being prepared, that the plans for the Courthouse would be attended to later, that the Government were considering the University site question, and that the matter of a railway station would be decided upon when the Government had the data from which to discover whether or not it was necessary. This is all nebulous enough to puzzle the most optimistic of our citizens, but there was nothing nebulous about the Ministerial indignation which was poured out upon Mr. Baume's temerity in endeavouring to get a date fixed for the calling of tenders, if only for the Post Office. The Minister for Public Works appealed to what was being done at Rotorua, pointed to the police stations that were being erected in the province, and quoted the expenditure upon fcho Departmental Buildings, as ovid?n"c that everything which is Ministerially possible is being done by a paternal Government for this avaricious and ungrateful city. Shortly, he said: Auckland would be "given a splendid Post Office ;" and it must be admitted that from Mr. Hall-Jones' point of view it is intolerable that the Northern metropolis should not be satisfied-* to wait in patient humility until it pleases him to be reedy with his "gift," and should also want, at the same time, a courthouse, a university, and a railway station. For hitherto, the Public Works Department has been able to concentrate its chief energies, apart from the buildings of the political capital, upon the erection of modern public edifices in the South. And Mr. Baume was certainly out of order, as a loyal Government supporter, in being so pressing upon behalf of local claims with which the dominant members of the Cabinet have little sympathy. Yet we venture tc assert that in this matter the member for Auckland* East voiced the unanimous feeling of; our citizens, who know by long experience that nothing can ever be got for the North from this Administration without incessant and unblushing urging. Mr- Baume ought to return to our claims to new public buildings upon every possible occasion, and if he does so will soon have the satisfaction of seeing a tangible result for his Parliamentary reiterancy. Not a single one of the four claims 'he advanced but can be fairly and fully substantiated; each one of these four necessary buildings ought to receive the immediate and practical attention of the Government.

We have frequently urged that it is the duty of the Government to push forward its public works so that during the slack months of the industrial year there may be ample employment for labour unavoidably displaced in industries dependent upon the weather. ' If this were done, as might quite easily be done, we should not have unemployed deputations to the Mayor of Auckland while the general prosperity of the Dominion and of the province is beyond question. Were the new Post Office started at once, as i f should be, it would employ a considerable number of men; and it would be infinitely better to get on with this, and with other public works, while some of our workers are in temporary need of opportunity, than to wait until every industry is again in full swing. With his usual acumen, the Mayor saw that while labour is available is the time to push along the drainage scheme, which now only awaits the passage of the enabling Bill, and what Mr. Myers can see Mr. Hall-Jones ought to be able to see were his interest in this locality sufficiently keen. The "making" of work for the purpose of enabling men to earn wages is a most mistaken policy, and only justifiable in a crude state of society. But to manage the public works . of the country with a sympathetic eye to the circumstances of the workers is quite a different thing. Auckland ought to have had a new Post Office, a new Railway Station, a new Courthouse, and a new University years ago. Considering the immense business transacted locally by the Post Office and Railway Departments, the importance of our Magistrate's Court and the abject condition of our present University building, it is beyond disputation that new buildings are urgently needed. They are not only far below the architectural standard which has been set by our Auckland commercial institutions, but they are incomparably inferior to Government structures long erected in towns of comparatively small importance. Mr. HallJones may tell us that the Government is going to give us all that we I are asking for, but, with Mr. Baume, I .we would like to know when,. It

is not enough for him to say that the plans for this are being prepared, and the necessity for that is being discussed, and the site for something else is being considered. Ministers have too long and too often fed our Auckland hunger with a Barmecide feast of promises for us to attach any great importance to vague words, however sounding. Nor is it creditable either to the Administration or to the country that although, as everybody knows well, the demand for labour is generally greatly in excess of the supply, yet upon the occasions when the demand temporarily slackens the Government is not ready to take advantage of this, and to make headway with work so needed as that of our public buildings.