OLD STATION SITE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20603, 30 June 1930, Page 12

OLD STATION SITE.

Sir, —In your report of the plans submitted to the City ,Council the subdivision of this valuable block, the city engineer stated that " the probable compensation for disturbance &f business in one case alone would be not less than £80,000." The total value of the premises occupied by the firm to whom this £BO,OOO "would probably have to be paid "i 3 £16,500! The £BO,OOO compensation is nothing but a bogey. I see no word or even mention of the " betterment " to be paid by the present owners and lessees on the south> sidd of Quay Street, and the north side of Customs Street. Yet, if the council's plan is adopted, it will convert eight warehouses which at present are at the corners of short blind streets into corner lots of two very important thoroughfares between Customs and Quay Streets. If the Harbour Board's plan is adopted, it would confer a right of air and light to the rear portions of the whole of the buildings on the north side of Customs Street from Queen Street to Breakwater Road, and the whole of the buildings on the south side of Quay Street for tlio sanie distance* (which air and light they at present receive free, on sufferance). It would also give access to all these premises from the rear, which at present they do not possess, and would thus increase the valuo of these extensive blocks by a huge sum. Just a word or two on iho Shortland Street proposed exchange. In my opinion the Government is asking too big a price for the land and the conditions it imposes arc unnecessarily hard on the City Council, considering that the council's main object in acquiring the properly in to make a thoroughfare from Shortland to Fort Street, the Government demand for 57ft. 3in. of the Shortland Street front, age for the purpose of a new post office—-leaving-only 45ft. for the new road—ii an unnecessary amount. It only proposes <o take a depth of 50ft.! Now surely their architect could have made an equally good post office by taking 40ft(or even 44ft.) to Shortland Street by 70ft. deep, thus giving an equal area and leaving the council enough frontage to make a fairly decent street. Then to demand that land at the rear of the Supremo Court for a paltry i* surely not made in earnest. I made a firm offer of £IO,OOO to the council for tins block over 15 years ago, and was told my offer had nottfi ghost of a chance of acceptance. What its value is now 1, hesitate to say, but it has been held up because of.the hope of an exchange with the Government for 15 years, in which time my £IO,OOO at 5 per cent, compound interest would have been something like £22,000. J. Tiiobnes, 231, Parnell Road.