Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1901. SITE FOR TOWN HALL.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 13 February 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1901. SITE FOR TOWN HALL.

Our morning contemporary apparently is exceedingly keen and deeply interested in the selection of Boundary Street as the site for the Town Hall. As the matter has been relegated to the decision of the ratepayers, we should not have advocated one site as against the other had the question been left to their decision without having misleading statements placed before them. Wo do not purpose even now advocating one site as against another, but we desire to place before the voters an actual statement of the facts as they appear to us. Two sites will be submitted for their selection. Site No. 1 Boundary Street is a freehold site and this undoubtedly is a recommendation. As against this qualification the spot is certainly far from being in the centre of the town, and indeed may bo almost said to be in the heart of the Chinese quarter. The new Municipal Corporations Act provides that streets must be not less than sixty-six feet wide. If the Town Hall be erected in Boundary Street, it will be impossible to comply with the Act inasmuch as the requisite width of streets cannot be obtained. Upon a legal basis this would at once place the Boundary Street site out of further consideration. It will, however, be submitted to the ratepayers for their consideration, and they will doubtless give duo weight to the above facts before recording their votes and the further one that the locality is liable to be flooded -whenever the river rises above the normal height. A further argument against the Boundary Street site is the fact that the Public Library will be in the Municipal Buildings, and that the locality is certainly unsuitable for this purpose. The Church of England ground is on Maori property, and perhaps this may bo advanced as an argument against it. It is, however, far more central, and this must be regarded as a considerable factor in its favor. Take two average sites on similar blocks in Mawhera Quay and Richmond Quay, the Maori rent notwithstanding, the advantages of a Mawhera Quay as agaiust a Richmond Quay site will be admitted by everyone, Our contemporary tells us that the Church of England ground will cost £SOO (the subsequent rent being merely nominal). This statement is perfectly true, but it is also true that a section of an acre in extent is being obtained for the outlay, and that the Trustees could obtain a thousand pounds for the same property; indeed, that amount has been offered for it. They, however, prefer to sell the property for a Town Hall for the smaller amount rather than part with it to a private individual for double the sum, who would probably erect all kinds of business premises on it. The property, therefore, that they purchase if this site is selected, is just worth double the amount that they are asked to pay for it. Our contemporary : states that it will cost three or four

hundred pounds at the lowest to fill up the site in Mackay Street; but our contemporary does not mention that owing to the Boundary Street site having been a lagoon formerly, the cost of sinking a sound and permanent foundation whereon to erect a hall will far exceed the outlay he mentions in regard to Mackay Street. We might, if we chose, urge many reasons in favor of Mackay Street as against Boundary Street, but we content ourselves with pointing out the merits and demerits of the properties and allowing the ratepayers, who are certainly much interested in the matter, to decide for themselves.