THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1923. THE EXHIBITION SITE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18876, 31 May 1923, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1923. THE EXHIBITION SITE.

It ig impossible to regard as satisfactory the decision at which the Provisional Committee arrived last night respecting the site of tho Exhibition in 1925. It would bo improper to complain -of the selection of Lake Logan site, since it is held to be the most suitable of those that have teen suggested, if it bo available, although the preparation of this area for, the purpose must entail an expenditure very largely in excess of thqt which would have to he incurred on other sites that have been examined and rejected in favour of it, and although we still think that the Lake Logan area does not satisfy one of the main requirements that should be taken into consideration in the settlement of the important point of the location of the Exhibition. The question of the site is one about which differences of opinion were bound to arise, but the view of the majority must necessarily bo accepted, and the minority, even if they are a substantial minority, as is the case in this particular instance, must, as reasonable people, acquiesce in that view. What is to be regretted is that the decision, by a narrow margin of votes last night, that the Lake Logan site should be adopted, does not represent finality in the matter. It is a decision that is wholly contingent upon the ability of the Harbour Board to have the area reclaimed, and not reclaimed only but consolidated also, by a date early in 1925 that will admit of the Exhibition Com-' mittee taking possession of the site and proceeding with the erection of buildings. It is, therefore, literally correct to describe the decision as tentative. The Harbour Board is not in a position to undertake that the site will be ready by the time when it is desirable that it should be ready. Apparently, it will not be until after six months’ experience of the working of two shifts of the large dredge on the filling-in of the area that the Board will be able to form a definite conclusion as to whether it will be practicable to havo tho reclamation completed by January, 1925. It is only in the event of it being found possible to charter the Bluff -Harbour Board’s dredge, at a very heavy cost, and to utilise it in conjunction with the local dredge, that the Board can guarantee that the site will be ready in time. As matters stand, unless the Bluff dredge can be hired, the decision of the Provisional Committee in favour of the Lake Logan site is subject to review in six mouths’ time. In other words, if the Harbour Board is unable then to give the necessary undertaking as to the completion of tho work at Lake Logan, the Committee will have then to decide upon another site. That simply means, however, that six valuable months will be occupied before a final determination r.s to the site will be reached. For the alternative, that the Exhibition should be postponed for twelve months, would involve tho risk of a conflict with tho plans of toe Industrial Corporation of New Zealand, which acquiesced in the abandonment of its own exhibition in this city next year in consideration of the larger enterprise being undertaken in 1925. Tho Exhibition must be held in the summer of 1925 in order that the arrangement with the Industrial Corporation may bo carried out, and we cannot but regard it as unfortunate that the final settlement of the site should havo to be deferred for so long as it must now be.