PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2384, 13 February 1915, Page 5

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS

THE SUPPLY OF MARBLE.

The fact that the contractore for tho crcction of Government Buildings hayo not yet been ablo to got marblo in blocks sufficiently largo for Bomo parts of the building is already well known. Ono result of the inability of tho owners of tho quarry to supply tho stono is that stonomasons are not being employed on tho building, iuid a deputation representing the Stonemasons' Union waited upon tho Ministor of Public Works (tho Hon. W. Frasor) yesterday. Tho deputation, which was introduced by Mr. T. M. Wilford, urged that tho •Minister should take somo action in tho matter, either, in tho direction of compelling tho contractors to find marble in Now Zealand or elsewhere, or of allowing other stono to bo used. ' Tho Ministor in reply said that tho contractors had discovered that while the small blocks of marblo quarried at Sandy Bay wero all right, tho big blocks .woro defectivo, and could not be passed by tho Government officials. That, he said, was what they ought to have found out twolvo months ago. The contractors contracted to provide tho marblo; tho Government had nothing to do with' it. Ho had already spent some £60 or £70 in sending officers of the Department over to see how tho difficulty could bo overcome, and it was leported that a bettor quality of marblo could be procured from another quarry, but the objection was that that would require a longer haulage, and, conse-_ quently, a greater expense. He was, he added, going into tho question very carefully, with tho assistance of the law advisors. It was a big tiling, and he was not going to have his hands forced. He did not want to act harshly towards the contractors, who seemed to think that they were not bound to find the marble, but the law officers advised lihn | that that was not so.