29 NOVEMBER 1873, Page 3

The Times publishes an account of the. new Central Telegraph

Office, about which there are two facts to be noted. No archi- tect has been employed, the entire work having been completed by Mr. Williams, an Assistant-Surveyor of the Works' Depart- ment. Consequently, the architect was not paid 6 per cent commission on expenditure. Consequently, it not being his interest to lavish money, the building cost only £1504000, and iis most perfect for its purpose, the supply of light, which is defee- tive in the corridors and some rooms of the India Office matt Foreign Office, being complete everywhere, and the whole in- terior—including a telegraph-room covering an area of 20,800 square feet, and far the largest in the world—being exactly suited to the purposes of the work. Government work is never badly done when the object of the department is to show a surplus.