THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1163, 15 June 1894, Page 19

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

At the meeting of the City Council last week the following letter from Messrs T. Turnbull and W. C. Chatfield was read : " Wellington, 7th June, 1894. " J. E. Page, Esq., " Town Clerk, Wellington. "Dear Sir, —We have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 31st ult. referring to our report of the 28th ult in connection with the Public Library, and further asking us to * inform the Council whether we consider it necessary that any money should bo spent in strengthening the foundation of the tower after the work we have recommended has been done/ " In our report cf the 28th ult. we recommended the adoption of a system of ties as being the most feasible manner of securing to the building a strength which has become necessary in consequence of damages it had received, and which the construction of the building did not adequately provide in different form. In regretting the foundation adopted (which, wo would remark, is not what is professionally known as "floating foundation"), we are of opinion that the fact of that site : having for many years acted as a repository for drifted mud deposit would be I sufficient to make unadvisable any foundation which did not rest upon a carefullyascertained solid bottom, from which the superstructure should have been carried up. We consider the foundation adopted as the primary cause of weakness, supplemented by the uneven distribution of weight, evidenced by the proportion of the tower and rest of building attached. " It does not appear to us that any provision has been made in the construction for completely uniting the tower and the rest of the building. Hence the recommendation in our report of the 28th ult. for this purpose. "During the course of construction a subsidence of several inches is reported- to have taken place, and being uneven in distribution, would define weak points upon which recent earthquakes have operated. We conclude that the subsidence now taking place is fractional, and dependent largely upon tidal operations, diminishing with the general subsidence of the land. Any attempt to now substitute foundations to the natural solid bottom would be not only complicated and of considerable risk to the building, but costly in execution, and questionable as to results upon the remaining portions of the building until complete consolidation was established. It will, therefore, be seen on reference to our report of 28th ult. that we recommended such measures as we considered necessary

■—"" B ,!■,! " gg I BBS) and advisable to bo executed under the circumstances. " We Consider that if the suggestions made by us in our report are efficiently carried out, that further expenditure, unless at great cost, and under conditions already explained, would not be advisable. " Yours faithfully, " Wm. C. Chatfikld ) Councillor Frasor moved that the report be adopted, and that the plans and specification for tho work already agreed upon be submitted to Messrs Turnbull and Chatfield before it is gone on with. Councillor Tatum seconded the resolution, saying ho was sorry to see tho building was in a most rotten stato. (No, no.) A serious blunder had been committed, ana a largo amount of public money had been wasted. Tho architect in his original plans had recommended that piles should be driven in. That had been changed to floating foundations, aud he would like to know who had authorised a furl her change to ordinary foundations. In tho interest of tho public some enquiry should be mado as to who was really to blame for that mistake. Councillor Barber said at a previous meeting he was reported to have said that blame attached to those who advised the Corporation to adopt these foundations. What ho said was that as far as he could see the architect was blameless, and those who advised the adoption of the designs were also blameless. The resolution was then put and carried. At the conclusion of the meeting Councillor Tatum gave notice that at the next meeting of tho City Council he would move :—" That an enquiry be instituted with a view of ascertaining who was responsible for the substitution of an ordinary foundation for tho Public Library in lieu of a pile foundation as originally proposed by the architect, Mr Crichton."