THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1883, 6 March 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1880.

We must confess to a feeling of doubt whether —though well intentioned —the course pursued by the City Council with regard to the Market Reserve is a right one. It has been always urged as a reason for offering special inducements to tradesmen to occupy the Market Place that they require considerable persuasion to come to that end of the city. This is an argument we are at a loss to understand. So long as the market affords inducement to purchasers either from low prices or extra quality the public will go to it whatever portion of the city it is placed in. Therefore it is that we incline to the belief that the City Council have made a mistake firstly in allowing the occupation of so valuable a reserve at a mere nominal rental, and secondly

in encouraging the erection of a medley of sheds which are certainly not any ornament to the city With regard tO tho, fii-af. nninf til a *•<>+" ,^ l6D u ft oa per toot per annum. Anyone who knows the value of business sites, particularly one so admirably placed as this, will agree that this is a most reasonable charge to make far too i reasonable when we consider that this is the only reserve from which the ratepayers have any hope of receiving anything. However, this is a secondary consideration to the grave error of allowing a collection of sheds and shanties of all descriptions to he placed on one of the most prominent sites in the city. It would he far better to have left it in all its pristine ugliness, with heaps of stone dotted here and there, than allow such hideous specimens of architecture to disfigure it. As we have said, we think the Council have made a mistake in this matter. In their over anxiety to he economical they have saved a penny and lost pounds. If is necessary that a market should be established —and, judging from the readiness with which sites have been taken up, there appears to he a demand for it —let it he done properly. For a very small outlay, comparatively, the Council could have erected a market which would not have been a reproduction on a small scale of the famous Melbourne Paddy’s market. Such a site as the market place is certainly entitled to have a building erected on it with some little pretensions to taste, and not a collection of sheds huddled together as they now are. Had the Council themselves taken the matter in hand they could have erected a plain but docent looking building, with stalls for the various tradesmen, at a very moderate outlay, an expenditure which would have been more than recouped by the rentals receivable. The erection «f such a building would have been serviceable in two ways to the general public. Firstly, it would enable something to be made out of a valuable reserve, which now might as well be unoccupied as let at such a small amount. Secondly, it would tend very materially to cheapen the price of vegetables, fruit, and other commodities of a like nature. That this is so is proved ‘by the effect of the present primitive attempt at a market. Fruit and vegetables are to be had there at a very large reduction to that charged for them in the shops. This being so and the public always going where the cheapest articles are to he procured, there would be no difficulty whatever in letting the stalls in the corporation market at a fair price, and the result would he a return which would soon recoup the expenditure. We would point out that with regard to the fish market on the western side of the reserve the Council are evidently going to make it permanent. It is contemplated to put down a concrete floor, lay on water, &c., at a cost of not less than £BO. Why should the fish market be treated differently to the other, and why could the Corporation not [expend a moderate sum on a building on the other side, so as to make that market a permanency, as they evidently intend the other to be ? The fish market is bound to bo limited as regards the number of stalls to be taken up, but the other market embraces so many trades and callings that there need be no fear of a building such as we suggest being too large for it. We certainly hope that the Council will take this matter into consideration, as now they are perpetuating a series of buildings of what is known as the “ shodifice ” character in the very heart of the city. What we propose does not involve any

large expenditure to begin with, and there is no doubt that whatever outlay is gone to, will, to a largeextent.be returned in the shape of rents. At any rate the erection of one decent building in the place of the present jumble of huts would be worth something. As the question of the fish market comes up on Monday next, this matter might also be discussed with advantage.