ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 11, 6 October 1937, Page 3

ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE

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Government's Land Purchases at Wellington TOWN-PLANNED AREA

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WELLINGTON, Tliis Day. Now that the Minister of Finance (Hon. Walter Nash) has revealed the intention o| the Government to create a large new administration centre ahont Parliament buildings it is possible to disclose some details of what the Government has in mind. The new administration centre will be placed in the rear of the present Parliament Buildings and will involve a large area of land. Just how large that area will be is yet nndetermined as the plans for the project, after be-. ing drafted several times, are still incomplete and temtative. To pave the way for the scheme the Government, as was recently revealed, has been purchasing property in Sydney street, behind the present buildings. In addition, the old Pominion Museum site, just across the road from Parliament, and an adjoining tennis court and. private property now are available for building sites. Linkod with the whole plan is the intention of the Wellington City Council, after many years of debate, to construct a new tramway line to its Western suburbs by means of tunnelling a hill which will be reached by running the trams up Bowen street. The Government will sell off any necessary land to the city, retain the rest_ and then, by Aet of Parliament, take over Museum street, which is a Government thoroughfare already, and close it. In the final plan Museum street may figure merely as portion of the ground which (in the words of the Ministe-r of Finance) the most "modern town-plan-ning principles" will leave vacant among tlie groups of buildings. These buildings will include, at their head, the new national radio broad^sting house, with its conservatorium of music and small theatre which was forecast by Professor James Shelley some time ago, and the new national library. These, with administrative offices, will be grouped in the form of a square. The national library, which will take over the books and records of the present Parliamentary Library as its nucleus, will naturally be placed as close to the legislatnre as possible and the present intention is to set it on tlie north side of the new arrangement, running across Museum street, and, presumably, portion of Sydney street west. Ilowever, nothing is yet finally determined abvafc that plan except that the new buildings are to be erected 111 a style of architecture Avhich will harmonise with the existing portion oi the Parliament Building which was begun so many j-ears ago and still remains in an unlinished statn. There is one scliool of thouglif whicjj iiolds that the existing Parliamentary Librray should be remodelled so that it may serve as a national library, and it is understood. that this wonld be possible by taking over the whole build ing and making alterations which would be performed at a reasonable cost. Tlie problem of space would be met if the existing committee rooms and departmental offices, notablv those of the Health Department, were aftsorbed by the library Avliich now ex:sls in & separate portion of the building.