URGENCY FOR NEW WHAKATANE POST OFFICE STRESSED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 45, 30 September 1949, Page 5

URGENCY FOR NEW WHAKATANE POST OFFICE STRESSED

Wellington, Thursday

Preliminary plans for the new Post Office at Whakatane had been prepared and the job was on this year’s estimates, said the Postmas-ter-General, Mr Hackett, in the House of Representatives. He was replying to an inquiry by Mr W. Sullivan (Bay of Plenty), who said that a first class site for the new building had been waiting for some years. The old building, he pointed out, was erected about 1860 and, although recent additions of prefabricated Army huts had been useful in temporarily relieving the accommodation problem, especially for the district’s telephone system, there was an urgent need for a new Post Office.

Should Proceed “There is a strong desire in Whakatane that the new building should proceed as soon as possible,” added Mr Sullivan, who said that the work should,be facilitated by the fact that the supplies of steel and cement appeared to be improving. The item had already been on the estimates for two years.

Mr Hackett said that the Whakatane Post Office was one of a number of projected buildings for which the Government had been very reluctant to issue a permit to itself because of the criticism which the Opposition might raise There had also been difficulties in some centres in getting suitable contractors for buildings which were urgently required.

There had been some instances of a contractor, thinking that there would be no competitive quota for the work, tendering at.such a price that the department simply could not accept the tender.