NEW CITY ROAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22463, 6 July 1936, Page 11

NEW CITY ROAD

MINISTER'S VISIT PROPOSALS TO GOVERNMENT Because he is suffering from the effects of a chill, the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. I?. Semple, has not been able to inspect the sites in Shortland Street and Civic Square which are the subject of proposals by the Auckland City Council to the Government. He also has had to defer a conference on the question with the Finance Committee of the council. It is probable now that the Inspection and conference will take place on Friday morning, when the Minister returns from the North.

The position relating to the Short-land Street area is that an arrangement was made with the previous Government whereby a 40ft strip of the site, on which was contained part of the old post office, should be given to the city for the purposes of a roadway between Shorthand Street and Fort Street. The Government proposed to bnild a seven or cight-storev building on the remainder of the site, and plans have actually been prepared.

The Mayor, Mr. Ernest Davis, has reopened negotiations, suggesting that the City Council should take over the whole site, partly in order to make a wider roadway. The council would eventually pull down the Victoria Arcade building, which it owns, and erect on it a large modern building, which would have, frontages to Queen Street, Shortland Street-, Fort Street and the new street. The Government could take over certain floor space in the new building for its own offices, or, alternatively, it could take a site owned by the council in Civic Square and build its own premises there. The council would use part of the building for certain of its own departments. The Minister was to have made the inspection when ho arrived by the limited express on Saturday morning, in company with the assistant chief engineer to the Public Works Department, Mr. J. Wood. He was met at the railway station by the deputy-Mayor, the Hon. Bernard Martin, M.L.C., and members of the City Council. However, it was decided to defer the inspection until yesterday, but subsequently the Minister's indisposition upset that arrangement.