THE CITY’S RECORD BUILDING RETURNS

Southland Times, Issue 23740, 11 February 1939, Page 11

THE CITY’S RECORD BUILDING RETURNS

To The Editor

Sir, —Your glowing account this morning ,of Invercargill’s development makes very interesting reading and calls up some very interesting recollections of last election. Your big head-lines run—“ Building Returns Outstanding”; “Comparison With Other Centres.” Oh, excellent. And you go on to show from the Local Authorities Hand-book 1936-7, , “that for the year ending March 31, 1937, the number of dwellings erected in Invercargill ana their value exceeds the combined totals of Palmerston , North, Timaru and Wanganui,” and then you print the figures, which, you say, do not include Government buildings—

You conclude this most interesting and enlightening statement by quoting our town clerk (who has no axe to grind). “Invercargill,” he said, “had the biggest volume of new dwellings for the period under review outside the four main centres. It was a proud position,” he added, “and the figures are complete substantiation of the claim made by Southlanders that Invercargill is a progressive city.”\ “Complete substantiation.” Thank you, Mr Toym Clerk. Yes, it is complete substantiation, and it is complete refutation of some other figures and assertions I seem somehow to remember..

And thank you, Mr Editor. I’d sooner have had this “complete substantiation” from The Southland Times than from any other source I know. Homer nods, and then the truth is out. So, all Mr Mervyn Mitchel’s “facts”, and figures and assertions last election—some of them sent by Press Association message from your office all over the country—were, well, what these authentic facts and figures show them to have been. And when you supported him and his position then, you supported the opposite of what, on your own showing, is now,proved to be the truth. Well, well. What is it that Shakespeare says about time bringing in his revenges? Any way, it is grand to see you, however off your guard, printing what everybody, yourself and Mr Mervyn Mitchel included,, always knew was the plain and obvious truth.— Yours, etc., CECIL J. TOCKER. February 10, 1939.

[lnvercargill has no-licence; more dwellings were built in Invercargill during the year ended March 31, 1937, than were built in cities of similar size. Mr Tocker in his own mind apparently accepts these two facts as cause and effect, and feels that he has scored a tremendous triumph over his opponents. We have never denied that Invercargill was progressing, and we have never been anything but eager to publish figures illustrating its progress. But we question whether that progress has been all it might have been and whether the effect of nolicence on the city’s development has been as Mr Tocker believes. For the rest, it is necessary only to point out that the town clerk’s comments quoted above were preceded by a statement (not quoted) that Invercargill’s building progress was “not to be wondered at when you can buy a quarter-acre section of the best land on flat- ground for £lOO or less”; and to say that Mr Tocker is welcome to his cheap innuendoes against this paper.—Editor, The Southland Times.]

New Dwellings Value , £ Invercargill 164 134,521 Palmerston North 69 55,464 Timaru 65 52,069 Wanganui 15 11,140