PARLIAMENT’S NEW HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1922, Page 8

PARLIAMENT’S NEW HOME.

APPROACHING COMPLETION. GOST FAR EXCEEDS THE ESTIMATE. 'During the last session the Minister of Public Works (Mr. Coates) told the members of the House of Representatives that he hoped to have the new Parliamentary Buildings completed -before next session opened. It appears that this hope will not be realised fully, but the work will not be very far from completion when Partiament meets at the end of next month. The domed entrance hall, marble panelled, and the marble stairway leading from this hall to the next floor, are now assuming their final form. Many of the new offices in front of the building will be ready for occupation shortly. The building consists of the central portion and the northern wing of the Parliamentary Buildings as originally planned. The southern wing is to occupy the site of the old Government House, which at present provides accommodation for some of the Ministers and for Bellamys and a part of the parliamentary staff. The original contract price for the portion of the new building now being completed was in the neighbourhood of £150,000. But the war, in addition to delaying the work, has very largely increased the price, and negotiations are now proceeding between the Public Works Department and the contractors with regard to adjustments. The cost of the building to the Government is not likely to be less than £200,000.

The Minister stated in the House during the recent session that fresh arrangements had been made with the contractors during the War owing to increased cost of materials, shortage of labor and other difficulties not anticipated when the contract was signed. The position was that the new buildings were going to cost very much more than the contract price, owing to the increased war costs. An arrangement had been made between the contractors and the Public Works Department — which suited both parties very well —under which the contractors were allowed to cut certain stone for other contracts on the land iu Museum Street, and this concession would be taken into consideration as an offset when the additional cost due to the war was assessed.

A committee of experts had been appointed to go into the matter, on which the Department had its representatives, added the Minister. The contractors were keeping the actual costs of the work r —wages, material, etc.—and the engineers on the committee decided what was a fair thing for the Department to pay. The work that was done by the contractors in the yard in Museum Street was set off against the extra charge involved in war costs. It is interesting to recall that when last the New Zealand Government paid for a Parliamentary Building in Wellington the cost was only £B2OO. The first Parliamentary Building was erected in Auckland, and completed in time for the meeting of the first General Assembly in May, 1854. On the transfer of the seat of Government to Wellington, the General Government purchased from the Wellington Provincial Council in January, 1-865, the Provincial Council Buildings in Molesworth Street. This building was erected for the Provincial Council some six or seven years previously on a more comprehensive plan than the actual requirements of the province demanded, with a view to affording the requisite accommodation tor the General Assembly on the anticipated transfer of the seat of Government to Wellington. The price paid for uie building was £B2OO, being one-third less than the original cost. These buildings, to which considerable additions and alterations were made later, were used for meetings of the General Assembly until December, 11 1907, on which date they were, with the exception of the libraiy wing, destroyed by fire.