A VAIN HOPE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9006, 16 December 1907, Page 4

A VAIN HOPE.

Ministers will assemble in Wellington to-day, when a Cabinet meeting will I be held to consider the question cf the I re-erection of Parliament Buildings, and also where, during the process of re-building, the Legislature will hold its next session. Various suggestions have been put forth regarding the latter question. The new Drill Shed in the Te Arc division of the city, the Wellington Town Hall, and the Assembly Library have each, in turn, been advocated; and now Chriatchurch oraes in with suggestion that the Cathedral City offers special facilities for the conduct of Parliamentary business in the present chaotic condition of affairs.. The Christchurch people have always—and very naturally—hud a burning desire that the seat of Government should be removed to their beloved city of the . plains, and Canterbury members have made, in the somewhat distant past, strenuous but fruitless efforts to secure this, to them, great desideratum. Once,, inteed, they were so far successful as to get a resolution adopted by the Lower House sanctioning alternate sittings of the Assembly in Wellington and Christchurch, and *here was for a time rejoicing on the j: .rt of our southern friends. But the Executive had no intention of giving effect: to a mere resolution upon so momentous a question, and took care not to put the decision of the House in the concrete form of a Bill. That was in the Vogelian days, and,.until the present time, the Christchurch people- have remained quiescent upon the subject.. Now, however, there is a faint hope that that city will "get a teg- in." Wellington is destitute of a> suitable building in which to hold the next session of Parliament, and Christchurch has its old Gothic Provincial Buildings audi its large Canterbury Hall, and it is eager to place either, or both, these edifices at the-disposal of the State for Parliamentary purposes. These buildings might, or might not, be found- more suitable for the carrying on of sessional work than any available premises fn Wellington!but the difficulties in the way of even temporarily removing Parliament to Christ"harch arc Insuperable. The various departmental buildings, including tho all-important Government Printing Office, would stilt have to remain where they are. and without the contiguity of these it would be impossible to carry on even a short and unimportant session. What the Government propose to do in the matter we shali know shortly, but Christchurch is hopelessly out of the running. Vhe next session ipust be held in Wellington, but whatever place is fixed for the meeting of Parliament in that city great inconvenience wil' be experienced, and the

session is likely to prove of very brief duration. This will suit the Government, but it will also doubtless be of advantage to the country.