MORE PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21119, 29 February 1932, Page 8

MORE PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

There is still evidence of efforts to maintain political influence upon the expenditure of public money, and consequently of disregard for the necessity of subordinating all other considerations to . those of economy and efficiency. A preliminary announcement was made recently of proposals by a State trading department to erect at a cost of £50,000 or £60,000 a building of six storeys in Christchurch to provide for its own requirements and also to house the local staffs of the. Lands and Deeds and the Lands ant!! Survey Departments. The project aroused some criticism, not upon its intrinsic merits, but because it was apparently being given precedence over the new post office in Dunedin. That was the reason given by the builders and contractors of Dunedin through their official organisation, for protesting most emphatically to the Minister of Public Works, and their justification was that the promise by the Government of a new post office in Dunedin was made many years ago. The claims of Dunedin for a new post office ahead of " any other public buildings in the Dominion " need not be examined at the moment. A question of greater importance is whether the Government itself or any of its semi-independent trading departments is justified in undertaking large building enterprises in cities that are notoriously over-built, so that office accommodation is going begging at rentals substantially lower than the capital charges of new structures. That is the test by which all such proposals should be judged, even in those cases where the building is to be financed by a State department out of its own resources, without resort to borrowing on the Government's credit. The argument that such a building would be a sound investment and its undertaking a contribution toward the employment of idle artisans is not conclusive. Sound investments of the same character may be found in the Dominion without increasing the already huge outlay upon public buildings. For instance, there are reputable firms in Napier and Hastings who could safely be entrusted with loans to finance buildings necessary for the commercial rehabilitation of Hawke's Bay.