PUBLIC OFFICES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13680, 24 August 1908, Page 7

PUBLIC OFFICES.

SITUATION IN TIMARU. DEPARTMENTS WIDELY SCAT- 1 TERED. On Thursday last, in the Legislative Council, the Hon. J. T. Paul moved that a, return be laid on the table of the Council showing the total amount paid by the Government to private individuals for the rent of public offices in the following centres: —Invercargill Uunedin, Timaru, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, Palmers-ton North, Napier, AVanganui, and Auckland, the return to show the number of offices in each of the places mentioned above, the number under separate roofs, the location and purpose of the same, the annual rental paid, and the length of each lease. Tie urged that it would be a. good thing to have the Departments under ene ruof as far as possible. The motion was lost on the voices, members being of the opinion that the return asked for -would be valueless in proportion to the cost of preparing and printing it. But there is good reason to believe that Mr Paul is not the. only person, either in or out of Parliament, who would like to see all, or as many as possible, of the Government offices gathered under one roof. In Timaru, for instance, Post, Telegraph, Telephone, Savings Bank, and Education Board offices are in one block of buildings, and the last-mentioned is under notice to quit,- but where to go nobody at present knows; then in the Arcade are door notices showing that the Inspector of Machinery and Surveyor of Ships is located in Bowker's Arcade Chambers, and a few yards further along is the office of the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and of the Deputy Official Assignee (who, by the way,, although a Government official, is not provided by the Government with a. free letter box at the Post Office); in Stafford Street, at the end of the the Government Life and Accident in one office, and the Fire Department next door are to be found in Mr W. Hay's buildings ; a quarter of a mile south, near the top o£ the Stafford Street hill, are the Land, Stock and Agriculture and Defence Offices, all within the block formerly occupied by the Gladstone Board of Works, now defunct; the Custom House is handy to the harbour and railway Elation; the Courthouse and Police Station are hi North Street, aa many persona, not necessarily law-breakers are aware, for at the former the old age pension claimants have to file their claims; the Labour Department is in Hunt and Werry's buildings at the corner of George and Sophia Streets. Excluding the railway station it will be seen that the Government offices of Timaru occupy nine distinct buildings, some, of which are widely separated from each other. Before long the Education Board will be obliged to occupy a tenth; two places have so far been suggested for this department, either at the Technical School or in the Mechanics. Institute (next to the Courthouse) which will be vacated on completion of the new public library. It will be admitted that the Customs House could not be in a much more convenient place; it is within very easy distance of the shipping and the business portion of the town and in all seaports the Customs House is looked for on the water front. But what strangers and very often residents of the town have complained about is the difficulty of finding other departments; if, on visiting the Post Office they find that Education is the only "foreign" office in that building and somebody tella them there is a Government building opposite Ballantyne's they visit the Land Office, looking for, perhaps, either the Life or Fire Insurance, the Labour:; or Inspection of Machinery Offices or that i of the Deputy Official Assignee or Re.gister of Births, etc. One can imagine ] the feelings of a person condemned to ■ tramp the town in a vain search for | some particular office and it is easy j to surmise that such an unfortunate-in-dividual would probably turn his thoughts to. the logical conclusion that either the Post Office or the Land Office should be enlarged to accommodate all the Government offices.