HOSPITAL BOARD PLANS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22444, 13 June 1936, Page 17

HOSPITAL BOARD PLANS

Sir, —The writer has been expecting a word ot protest against the suggestion of the Auckland Hospital Board to employ a firm of Australian architects to advise upon, and carry out, future hospital extensions. What is wrong with our New Zealand architects? New Zealand architects, as a whole, and Aucklanders in particular, suffered greatly during the period of depression, not yet passed. If there is to be a revival of structural activity in New Zealand, then it is only right that New Zealand architects should be allowed to operate in their own territory. An Australian firm with between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000 worth of work in hand, however eminent it may be, is not in immediate need of further commissions. If it is considered to be a breach of etiquette to criticise the intrusion of an Australian firm into New Zealand, the writer's reply is that it is a greater breach to poach on the preserves of less fortunate practitioners who have been passing through a thin period, so far as opportunities for earning are concerned. Although interested in structural matters, the writer is not an architect, and is not materially affected. His only desire is that justice should be done to members of a profession who are quite equal to meeting any demands that may be made upon them. Vkncam