A VALUABLE ENDOWMENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13350, 7 April 1914, Page 2

A VALUABLE ENDOWMENT.

It may not be generally known that a large flection of one of the most important business blocks in Gladstone road is^iiii educational froin which tlie schools of this district receive no direct benefit. The property was' '.for- , merry vested in the Auckland School Commisfiioners, but under a recent jLct of Parliament all educational -endow-, ments passed under tjie jurisdiction, of , tlie Crown Lands Department, aiuj the School Commissioners as a ..body were> wiped out. Hence the Hawse's./ Bay Land Board finds ' itself controlling two. of our, most valuable city lots. t ,flt transpired at yesterday's meeting of the Board that the lease of the section occupied by the Strand Cafe a,nd adjoining shops is .about to fall in, and tha Board will presently have to comider the question of rc-leasing. The matter was talked over informally by the Board yesterday, and the idea prevailing seemed to be that the property might be leased j in thi-eftor four j*eparato lots as at pres[ent subdivided. The Board will no doubt consider it to be its duty to obtain as large a revenue as possible from the section a,nd premises. We think, however, it can reasonably be expected to take into consideration thfe ' broad view that owing to" the particularly favorable position 'which; this property occupies, right in. the heart of a most central business quarter, it is desirable, in the interests of tile tpwn as, well as, the f uture. letting , value of the endowment that provision should be made for the substitution of the present wooden buildings witli a modern fireproof struc-, ture. There" can, be. no question, that this large wooden building as a fire risk constitutes » menace to the safety of the town. The building i> getting 'old and though its timbers may at 'present be sound it is only a matter of a comparatively few years oefore it must suffer 'inevitable decay and become more or less an eyesore. Already the premises are out-of-date. Wo would not suggest that the incoming tenants be compelled ' to rebuild immediately, but that it be made a covenant : oL the lease that substantial modern buildings be erected before the termination, of the lease and that clue provision be made fpr compensation foi* improvements. The ad joining, property, fat ..flip'" .corner of -Peel' street and Gladstone road, it 'will bo remembered, waa also ah education lease, and yheu, re-let some few. years, ago term s ■■ were 'arranged ,Vundm* which an enterprising citizen who took the lease up was enabled to erect -the fine -structwro that stands. there 1 to-day-7-aiiOrna-. ment to the town and a good, source" of revenue. - Wl ia t , lia^'^epn. ' accpmplislied iri the one case ca^i, surely be acccomplifhed, iu' the other. The Board has in its^h^nds a most valuable, business, frontage, and it should endeavor to make the veryfbes.it use of it by providing for the erection of a building that would r be, in keeping with tlie. importance of the site and the commercial progress of l-Jisboriie.