New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5012, 17 April 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1877.

“ The University Building has been sold to P, C. Neill for £27,500.” This curt telegram from Dunedin, if it records a fact, records the completion of a great public wrong; for about £20,000 will have been thrown away, and a specially valuable piece of land, which should have remained the property of the Government, will have been sacrificed. The history of this building, now apparently the property of a Dunedin merchant, deserves to be recounted: for it proves how stupidly a clever man may act when he is afflicted with obstinacy—how-public interests may be injured when Government assistance, for a purpose of which all approve, is given in an improper shape. Fourteen years ago, when Dunedin was a very busy town, and by no means an unpleasant place of residence, though it was utterly unlike the city of to-day, tho post office was a shanty of wood. It was felt that a permanent building must bo erected upon the site reserved for the purpose, though part of it was then muddy

beach. There wore many contentions between the Provincial and the General Governments, as to tho character of the building; but there was agreement between the Governments and the people that the new Post Office should bo spacious enough to meet the business of the place for fifty years at least. It was wise that there should be such an. agreement. Messrs. Mason and Olayton, architects, prepared a plan; but before it was approved, Mr. Thomas B. Gillies (now Mr. Justice Gillies) had become Postmaster-General in the Fox- Whitaker Government. He, again most wisely, believed that the large, costly, permanent Post Office of Dunedin, should be arranged internally accordant witli the most modern views of how the business of such a department could best be conducted. So he visited Australia. In Melbourne and in Sydney, in Adelaide and (we think) in Brisbane, lie consulted experts and studied what was being done. On his return, he spent much time with Mr. Clayton, now the Colonial Architect; plans were prepared, in which the heart of a postal establishment, the sorting-room, was placed most advantageously for the whole work to be done; around it apartments were grouped so as to secure the most direct and effectively superintended operations ; and in conformity with those plans a building was erected. The Telegraph Department was amply provided for—even to the extent of specially-designed battery-rooms in the basement. The contract price for that structure exceeded £30,000, and we believe that nearly £40,000 was paid before the building was taken over. Of course, this did not include the value of the site, which being considerable ten years ago, would now probably realise twice the then estimate.

But when the building was completed, Otago was somewhat depressed. Men who had been amongst tho most confident prophets of a great future for Dunedin, nowrailedagainstthe large expenditure for a Post Office. The Provincial Government had erected offices which were too large, and had cost greatly more than £IB,OOO, which sum Mr. \V. H. Reynolds had, as representing the Provincial Government, pledged himself, should not be exceeded. So it came about that the building, designed with so much skill and care, was not fitted up as a Post Office; and when it was not possible the shanty in Jetty-street should be longer used, some arrangement was made by which the province housed in its too roomy offices both the Postal and the Telegraphic Departments, and the structure provided for them was handed over to the Provincial Government. The unwisdom of this proceeding was soon proved, apart from the fate of the Post Office building. The provincial offices could not accommodate the extended business of the Telegraph Department, and a new building has been erected at a large cost.

For some time the ground floor of the Post Office structure remained “ silent and tenantless,” save when it w'as used for a meeting or a concert. The Dunedin Corporation had the use of a suite of offices above stairs; and in them the Duke of Edinburgh was feasted and toasted, when Mr. Thomas Biech was Mayor. The Corporation had, however, to find other offices some years ago. The Provincial Museum occupied a suite of rooms corresponding to those used by the Corporation, Wo ..*-o not sure to what part of the city it is to migrate. The building having become provincial property, Mr. Macandrew, as Superintendent,.resolved that it should be appropriated for the Otago University. Remonstrance was useless. It was repeatedly urged that whatever money might be spent in converting it, the interior, having been planned for a wholly different object, could not be made suitable for university or college purposes ; and that, even if this could be done, the site was in every essential not fit for a University. Lying low, with its front to the main street, close to the approach to a jetty, very near what was to become the railway station —all the surroundings which established the wisdom of the choice of the site originally, established equally, to all but Mr. Macandrew and a few others, that there was not in the city a worse spot on which to fix a University, Study was, to all but those few, evidently impossible in a building standing on about the noisiest spot in Dunedin ; good health was scarcely possible for boys who sought to study there. But Mr. Macandrew was king in those days. Thousands of pounds must have been wasted in alterations, the results being bad class-rooms, and a ridiculous “ hall,” in a building out of place. It was made over to the University authorities, who soon found that they could not do their work in it. They could not ask for public funds, as they had accepted the useless building ; and they could not provide a proper structure beyond the bustle of the city, where study and health would be possible, unless they could get cash in exchange for their publicly-bestowed white elephant. The Government of Mr. Macandrew ought at first to have provided the necessary amount; the University authorities could only seek for a purchaser for what ought never to have been theirs to offer for sale. For some time, the unfortunate “ University Building ” has been “on the market;” at lastit seems to have been sold ; and the purchaser is said to -be likely to make “ a good thing ” out of its conversion into offices, for which there is just now a great demand. The University will no doubt soon have a proper home, which will cost less than the price paid by Mr. Neill, though it will cost much more than would a similar building erected when the University started ; Mr. Neill will, it may reasonably be hoped, make a profit; Dunedin will have an admirably-situated nest of first-class offices; but the Government will have lost the handsomest and most permanent public building in the colony, and the best post office (or business) site in Dunedin. For all which, thanks be rendered to one of the great champions of dead-and-gono provincialism ! ______