PROTEST SUPPORTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1939, Page 8

PROTEST SUPPORTED

SOCIAL SECURITY BUILDING & AOTEA QUAY

WIDENING OF THOROUGHFARE

ESSENTIAL.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MOTION.

(By Telegraph—Tress Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day.

Support for the protest of the Wellington City Council against the proposed alignment of the new Social Security Building in Aotea Quay was given by the Chamber of Commerce last night.

The president, Mr P. E. Pattrick, said it had been stated that the Government intended to erect the building within two feet of the 10ft footpath. He. thought that Cr. R. L. Macalister and others were right in suggesting that the authorities should be asked to have the building set back far enough to permit the widening of Aotea Quay, as had been contemplated for some time.

“I think,” added Mr Pattrick, “that the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, was a little unfortunate in his comment when he said that the Government was going straight ahead with the job and was not going to allow anyone to sabotage the Social Security movement. Surely it is ridiculous to suggest that anyone who, before the foundations are laid, urges that the building should be set back is anxious to sabotage the movement."

On Mr Pattrick’s motion it was decided to support the city council in making suitable and immediate representations to the Government.

Seconding the motion, Mr F. Wilson said that it would be a pity if all the good work done by the chamber, the beautifying society and the city council were to be “torpedoed.” If provision were not made now, said Mr A. R. Hislop, any future widening of Aotea Quay would have to be carried out at the expense of the footpath. In Waterloo Quay the building line had been wrongly established, with the result that, with the widening of the road, the footpath had become so narrow that it was barely possible for two grown men to walk along it side byside.

“GOING STRAIGHT AHEAD.”

PRIME MINISTER’S COMMENT.

WELLINGTON, This Day.

Reference to the discussion at a meeting of the Wellington City Council on Monday night concerning the alignment of the Social Security building in Aotea Quay was made yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr Savage. “I do not know very much about the building line,” he said, “but I do know this, that the city council seems anxious to find out something that will stop us, instead of trying to help us. I would like to remind everyone, including the city council, that the social security scheme will be the biggest thing known to New Zealand and New Zealanders, and it is just as well to realise that we are going straight ahead with the job and that we are going to allow no one to sabotage the movement.”