PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3, 8 May 1913, Page 4

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS.

Wellington’s "Evening Post” thus refers to tho new Parliament Buildings:

"The Hutt-road railway job was ‘os-, timated’ to cost £IOO,OOO, ‘and no more.’ ' lb cost £330,000. *The new Parliament Buildings are ‘estimated to cost £IIO,OOO. If they cost only a, quarter of a million the taxpayers will ho lucky,” wrote “Worker’ ’to Tho Post during March last year. When the conditions were framed for the very unsatisfactory “competition” in designs for the first section ,it was stated that tho cost was “not to exceed £110,000.” As much was asked for the money, including a structure to be “reasonably proof” against earthquakes and fire, local architects wero sceptical about tho monetary limit. They suspected that much more than £IIO,OOO would bo spent on that first large section, especially as £IOO,OOO had been allowed for the Wellington Post Office. Tho critics who resented certain unfair features of tho “competition’ 7 are finding themselves justified as time goes on. The Premier remarked at Auckland last week that tenders would soon he called for the buildings, of which the foundations have swallowed large sums of money. “This meant in the course of four years an expenditure of £250,000. The buildings would probably take seven or eight years to complete,” stated tho telegram about the tenders. “Worker’s” fears of March, 1912, seem likely to be verified. We presume that tho tenders will cover only the first section, which was the subject of tho “competition.” Hence the estimate of £IIO,OOO will he more than doubled, and the building will he then fat from complete. Tho present Government cannot be blamed for the very expensive muddlemcnt which has occurred since fire destroyed the greater part of the old blockMr Massey and his colleagues were keen critics of the wasteful expenditure, and when entering office they found themselves severely handicapped by tho sudden rush tactics of the preceding Administration. One of the last things Sir Joseph Ward did as

Premier was to lay the foundationstone of a building of which the design (so far as The Post was able to discover) had not then been definitely fixed, and a flurried activity followed. The full amount of the bungling with this scheme has yet to be reveajed. and the people do not yet know approximately what the final price (including the cost of muddlement) will be. A plain statement should be given to Parliament and the public early in the session.