CLAIMS FOR POST OFFICE

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1932, Page 15

CLAIMS FOR POST OFFICE

DUNEDIN REPRESENTATIONS. REPLY BY PRIME MINISTER. Dunedin, Dec. 19. The Otago Expansion League wrote to Sir Charles Statham recently contrasting the action of the Government in providing a subsidy for the National Art Gallery and Museum in Wellington with the delay in finding money to undertake the erection of a new post office in Dunedin. The letter was referred to the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, who states in reply that the moneys held by the board of trustees controlling the work on the National Art Gallery Will be drawn upon as far as possible "to enable building to proceed, and the whole amount of the subsidy will not become a charge for some considerable time. In fact, the final instalment will not be payable until the financial year ending March 31, 1937. Mr. Forbes states: “The erection of the Dunedin post office is in an entirely different category, as the Government must find the whole" cost. I regret that it is impossible to give- any definite undertaking that the Dunedin post office will be commenced at any stated time. I can only say that the Government is not unmindful of its promise that no Government building of any magnitude will be proceeded with in priority to the ’ Dunedin post office, for it fully recognises the importance of this work and the natural desire of the people of Dunedin for its erection.”