WHERE THE MONEY COES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143770, 19 April 1912, Page 2

WHERE THE MONEY COES.

WELLINGTON EXTRAVAGANCES.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, April 19. A squad of men are at present making havoc of the beautiful grounds surrounding the present Parliament House, formerly Government House. A great deal of greenery, tree ferns, and some well-grown English trees have been uprooted and cut down. It is necessary to provide a new entrance to the new building, hence the destruction. A broad winding road will lead through the trees, or such of them as are left, from Lambton Quay to the front entrance. Bowen Street, which skirto the grounds on the south, is to be widened to one chain, and a shop at the corner of Bowen Street and Lambton Quay is to be demolished, to get rid of a sharp corner there. Much of the turf from the lawn at the side of the present building is being skinned off and conveyed elsewhere. There is more destruction to follow. This hurried, and, some people allege, ill-conceived, disturbance of the amenities is rather sad to witness, but it will have to be put up with. The whole scheme from first to last, however, is undoubtedly a. shocking waste of public money. The expensive and repeated alteration of Government House for Parliamentary purposes, the finding of a new Government House at Palmerston North for Lord Phmket, the building of a new Government House on a bleak and inappropriate site at Newtown, and the general expenditure in connection with the scheme, must by this time have cost the country a pretty penny; but even that is as nothing to what must follow in connection with the new buildings, the foundation stone of which was laid in such a hurried and 1 impromptu manner the other day. For the expenditure up to date it is possible that a new chamber, joined on to the library and the remains of the old building, might have been in occnpation long ere this. Though the new building' will be a handsome addition to 'Wellington architecture, there is scarcely a local disinterested man who does not condemn the mismanagement and extravagance of the late Government in connection with the whole scheme. It was in itself almbst sufficient to warrant- 1 a change of administration.