A NEW CAPITAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143574, 12 August 1911, Page 2

A NEW CAPITAL.

There is something quite attractive about Mr. Laurenson’s proposal to move the political capital of the Dominion from Wellington. He was speaking on the Town Planning Bill and dwal-

ling on the faulty way in which Wellington was laid out, on its circumscribed area, and on the prospect of its becoming a very large and overcrowded city. Under these circumstances he felt sure that sooner or later the capital will have to be shifted, and he suggested that the Government should secure a block of suitable land, say 10,000 acres, up the Wairaropa Valley, in the Mapawatu, or at the back of Blenheim, and establish there a capita) which would be a joy for all time. He asked his hearers to picture a model city, laid out in circular form, with a lake in the middle and Parliament House by the water’s edge, and all without costing a country a- red cent. He calculated that an initial outlay of £1,000,000 would he all that was required, costing £40,000 a year to begin with, but that this woujd be mni;e than recouped by rents in the new capital, rents of the sites that would he vacated in Wellintgon, and also rents of the country surrounding the new capital. At first blush, it seems an almost impracticable scheme, the vain dream of a visionary, but a little thought will show that as a financial undertaking it is not impossible by any means. The Government buildings and sites in Wellington are of enormous value, and there is no doubt that they would readily be absorbed for commercial purposes, for there is {meat congestion in the city, and it will become worse every year. Already large areas have been reclaimed from the waters of Port Nicholson and further reclamations are''contemplated. From a strictly Wellington point of view there would be substantial compensations for the loss of population entailed by the removal of the Civil Service, while other parts of the Dominion would not object very strenuously to the political centre being removed to a home of its own. Really Mr. Laurenson’s idea seems to bo worth considering.