FIFTY YEARS AGO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15549, 5 March 1914, Page 11

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

o HEW PUBLIC BUILDINGS. SITE QI'KSTION DISCUSSED. (from Ibe HERALD of March 5, 1864.) ■•ij'oui' leadens nrc aware, a <onunission j,js been appointed by His Excellency to jfteive and '" I 'l' l plans, and to take all B(i«.*Sß& r . v n u ' ;IMII,,s lor '' ,0 erection of cerHfe puhli. buildings—a Government House in the Donwiin. m Supreme Courthouse, !Cantoni* H"ii-«\ ui<l a Post Office. . . The site ri's,-\i.| (or the Customs House I'jjMflte tin' W.iitriD.ita Hotel is the spot [Xjjetl. It ''■'" ■' Iri'iitagc both to Custom MUM Street and the Queen Street Wharf, And i». perhaps, the best situated allotjient wl'i<.li "Mill have heeti chosen. It is ■ifUe that I line is the site of the old Clistom II ''•*•■ in Shortland Street., on *bicii nun\ that the Post Office 'would he ere. :.•.). hut then there is only a sum of iJI-V.'.-O apportioned for either building, and 'I' commission has, we think wis'!. . ies. Ked on erecting one bai'diiiv:. in « hi. Ii both Departments they ate some« ii.it connected with one ftoothev -»ia\ he carried on for a tiiuo at any tat-' Iwrnty thousand pounds trill erect « building far more worthy of j the pro\ime than any two buildings would be, each ere.i.d ~t a cost of half the money; besides, too. as the province advance* the requirements of each Department will increase. nd the laijje buildings which now uuiy contain ample room for both Departments may, lu years hence, bo none too larjre for only one. It mav boused thai the proposed site is not i sufficiently centra! one for the Post Office. We believe that its heii, ? centrally situated II a matter of very little ronsemienre when the nP «I, ; >rop,*ed arrangements for working the Department are brought into four. With receiving ofti.es distributed over the «it v and suburbs, ( ,<] with a delivery extending to ~ radius of two mile's from the general offi.e. it would he little Witter to the public at large whether it be placed in Custom House Street, or in PiraeJl.