The Daily News MONDAY, MAY 18. NEW PARLIAMENTARY BUILDINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 125, 18 May 1908, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, MAY 18. NEW PARLIAMENTARY BUILDINGS.

According to a statement published I elsewhere in this issue, the Government - lias decided to ei'eet new legislative chambers and Parliamentary oiliees on I the site of the building recently destroyeil liy lire. The great and lavish building schemes so heroically indulged some months ago have beeu abandoned and a moderate and perfectly sane policy has been adopted. .Ministers are to ue congratulated. For the next two sessions at least the business oi Parliament will he conducted under circumstances oi the very greatest inconvenience. Committee meetings will he held in buildings outside the grounds where the Houses nre sitting; the library will be on the other side of a street to be crossed by a bridge; the Council will sit cramped in a hole, and the Ilou«e will occupy a den somewhat resembling a wide passage. It is hardly to be expected inn I the whole of the eighty members ot Hid [louse will be present at one time. Mil (here are the olliccrs „f the Jlou-c gentlemen of the Press, messengers and visitors to more than make up lor tin 1 absence of a few members, and the idea of jamming s '"' ll A <-' r "Wil into such, a narrow ..pace is i>crfcetly appalling.

Were it, anv other kind of factory but a legislative, factory, the Health Department would certainly be found interfering. Government House, it is ad-

mitted, has .served its time; in some places the timbers are absolutely rotten; but if it were pulled down to make way for Parliamentary buildings, where coiild the Legislature hold its meetings whilst a new structure was being erected'; Parliament must continue to oc-

copy Government House until some suitable accommodation can lie provided, and there is no site available that can in anv way compare with the old site. Sir' Joseph Ward is indisposed to give up the design of erecting a splendid addition to the General Post Ollice buildings—the Post Ollice is his pet Department—which will cost .CIOO.OOU. Next year, when the Manawatu railway becomes the property of the State, a new station in Thomdon will he a necessity; a new museum; a new Government House; new Government build-

ings; and new Parliament buildings swell up a bill that cannot possibly be looked at under present circumstances.

In any case, it is scarcely«,possib]e to f design a Parliamentary edifice that , wouid prove a profitable investment for ! the Dominion. It would be easy to ; draw plans for a building that would perfectly meet the exigencies of to-day. but the accommodation pi<ovidcd would begin to prove quite inadequate in thirty years' time and miserably insullicient' ill sixty. So far as a Parliamentary edifice is concerned, this State cannot afford to anticipate the future. II niu-t i-onlriu' to struggle along as best it can. and leave the questions of silo, design, and expenditure to the population of another time—that is, when the population numbers about ten times what it does at present. A new Go. venniM-nt House and new Govcrnmcnl Buildings will have lo waif a while; in the meantime the trouble is to provide accommodation for Parliament and that jimimiunilafimi is required ~s speedily as possible. Since the period of Hie lire, months of very precious time have been wasted and inonev spent unnecessarily. Ministers niigiil very well have anticipated tic wislies of Parliament -,,n,| gone on with tile work of erecting new buildings On the old site. Delay in this respect will I c-crtainlv involve the necessity of the Chambers legislating under very great | inconveniences for a session longer than there was any occasion for.

There is no sound reason why the sensible decision now arrived at' could not have been reached in January last, ami by this time the new buildings would have been well in progress. When Parliament meets it may be expected that members will not prove very amiable over the time that has been 'lost. i,e,.,|. lossly .condemning them to spend another year in their temporary lodging. The country districts, however, will be "lad to be assured that no extravagant",',,,, hoy involving the eN F „dituro within a short time of over a million „„ |h„ ~.„,;. la! is now contemplated. .New building worthy of the Dominion are of .■-;;■;■

required. I,„t their ~,•,.,.,j,,,, ~.j|[ j," m| . dertaken when ||„. ,i m .s-itv is nior. ~, gent and the expenditure will W spr over a number of yea,-.. If u brides not houses, thatare required, ruder'no '•"•'•umstaneos must the progress of settlement ,„,],„ ~,„„„ l|is -.. iij( terfered with, niuoli less stayed.