PRESS COMMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 68, 13 December 1907, Page 7

PRESS COMMENTS.

(by- TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL 'cORUESfONDENT.)

„ Auckland, Decombor 12. Uy way of editorial comment upon tho destruction of Parliament Buildings, the "Herald says: "Although tho Dominion is still too young to havo any great historic edihcos tho Parliament Buildings at Wellington had beon long enough associated with tno political development of Now Zealand to make their destruction by lire a sontimontal as well as a material loss. This woulTi have boon enormously increased had tho Parliamentary Library not been saved, for-we.can .replace a building, but cannot replace rare books and national documents. In connection with this, there will bo-very general sympathy felt for Mr. R. M'Nab among all who aro aware of the vorv real value of his historical researches, and'of tho patient work ho applies in his loisuro to tho rosuscitation of the buried loro of theso islands. J he. destruction of his privato papers and records is 0110 of the most regrettable incidents of the lire, and one which is as much a public as a private calamity. As to the lire itself, it is easy to bo Aviso after the event, but there would certainly seem to havo boon a lack of effective precautions, particularly when tho inflammable character of tho older and wooden portion of the structure is considered. These went like matchwood when the flames once obtained a strong hold, and carried with them less inflammable parts.' The fire will necessarily hasten tho new building, which was already in hand, and which would gradually have replaced the whole of tho wooden structure, so that if the Government had insured the place, cither in the usual way or by. carrying its own 'insurances in a special fund, the material loss to the taxpayors would have been greatly reduced, but tho Government has its own peculiar idoao about the insurance business, as was shown by the recent attempt to erect a wooden building at the railway station within the Auckland brick and stone limits, and for this the country has to pay.