SHODDY BUILDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22392, 13 April 1936, Page 6

SHODDY BUILDING

PARLIAMENT HOUSE OLD SYDNEY STRUCTURE TROUBLES OF LEGISLATORS [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY. April-8 Various proposals have been made to provide Sydney with a Parliament House worthy of the richest Australian" State and city, but successive Governments have always been afraid of the cost, estimated at £500,000. The present Government included a new Parliament House in its scheme for the remodelling of Maoquarie Street, in which the present Parliament House is situated, but the remodelling scheme has been dropped and with it the plans of a legislative building. Instead, the Government is preparing to spend £SOOO on repairs to the worse of the two sections of Parliament House—that housing the Legislative Council. The main building is a long, low, drab structure of Colonial architecture unsuitable for modern usage. But the Legislative Council chamber is a separate building, tucked away undignifiedly behind the frontage. It is a crazy old building, built originally as a church and bought by the Government 80 years ago for £1760. The allotment of a miserable £SOOO for repairs has stirred members to indignant protest. " If you want to live dangerously," said one member of the council; "become a member of the State Parliament, and in that venerable ruin, the Legislative Council, expose yourself to the hazards of white ants, fires, collapsing floors, and insecure roofs. It is a Parliamentary no-man's land, dangerous to health, perilous to limb, and so hot on summer nights that the Black Hole of Calcutta becomes almost a freezing chamber by comparison." Within the last year, a number of misadventures have befallen the old chamber. A fire broke out in a room upstairs and was checked from spreading only with the greatest difficulty. A -chandelier fell from the roof of the council and smashed a few inches away from the Ministerial table. A cupboard only a few feet away from the Speaker's chair, had to be replaced only a few weeks ago because it was honeycombed with white ants. A floor collapsed in the room where members wash their hands. A few years ago 14 wooden pillars had to be put in from floor to ceiling to reinforce the roof. These corrected an alarming drop in the level of the roof and a grave list of the outer wall. If these precautions haefcnot been taken, the whole building would prob. ably have collapsed. These are only some of the reasons members of the Council advance for protesting against the proposal of the Government to spend £S(XK) on renovations instead of building afresh.