NEW BUSINESS PREMISES.

EXPRESS CO.S BUILDING. TJie .handsome busine-s premises that have be-en erected for. th« N.Z. Express Company in Barnard Street are now completed so far as tlie building is concerned, and joiners are now busy putting in the finishing touches in the, vvay of fittings. A •' Herald" reporter was, shown over the building yesterday by a representative of Mr Walter Panton, 'tho-architect..... The building lias a handsome front in "pressed brick, laid old English bond, or bine stone base; .with, cement coro'ces, etc., and decorative pediment. Architects who have visited Timaru have said '"'hat it is one of/the handsomest brick fronts in the Dominion. The front contains a good show of" windows, four large square ones in the- lower, and : six with" eliptical heads in tie upper story. Tha upper front of the' building is 66ft. wide, but thu lower story is cut into by a 12ft. • cart-way closed with a double iron grille gate. The entrance to the building : through a. central - doorway, gives to a vestibule 9ft. by 9ft., well finished with picked rimu dado, Kecne's cement walls and pietty fibrous-plaster cornice and centre piece-. Right and left, double glass-panelled doors open into large offices, and opposite the entrance rises a neat and easy stairway to a suie of sample rooms filling the whole of the upper tjtory. The company will occupy the large, office to tlw left, this being a doorway to thu freestore beyond. ' Each of these front offices- measures 42ft by 21ft, aud each has a Mrongrooin in a rear corner, - about Bft by -Bft-. Thes«3;and all the interiors ore. lined with wood, - coated with white ■ enamel paint, relieved by skirting, cornice, door flames, etc., in. pale blue.- The lighting here, and throughout the whole range of sample rooms-i .is ample. ■ Passing up-the stair, one reaches a. long corridor, Bft. wide by 12ft' high, lighted by . three large ekylight«,''and off the- corridor open .no less than 18 sampl« rooms of-different sizes, sdDte of them so arranged that .they, can be-nsed as suites of twos and threes." The white walls of the corridor' are relieved by skirting,' cornice,' etc.', in oak graining. Space for one room is given tip to at

receiving platform from a large mechani cal lift, from the cart, dock below, so that traveller using the sample rooms get their cases delivered upstairs. There are ;dso separate lavatories and sanitary conveniences for men and for women, with, up-to-date porcelain fittings and tiled floors and walls. Each room is being tilted in the same style, with three rows of kauri shelving, the lowermost I ablewide, the uppermost ingeniously hinged so as to ho used cither flao or with a slight slope to better display i!s turnouts. Tho free story below measures 70ft by 18, and is lift high, aud a cart, dock- permits of drays hacking into building to load and' unload under coyer, -auu beside the dock is the lift- Laige. siding doors cfcte .the dock. Behind the tree store is- a Customs 'bond, . 40ft by .38,' -the building being. narrowed hero .to give room for vehicles turning in the yard. Hie -front windows are- well fitted with the new Austral balanced" sashes .an ingenious device, in -which one" sash balances the. other by miaus of an interposed pivoted s'-cel. ami. Tho arrangement provides'.an excellent means of ventilation and • permits- of tho sashes being reversed for- l-leaniiig. The upstairs windows at the sides are fitted with ordinary weigh ted sashis, and those, of the stores have strong cast-iron frames for 10 paucs. Mr fat or-, rier has.cast these, from a pa'teru made in wood resembling a wooden frame, and has made ;l n excellent job ol th-.'iu. When painted as these aro they look.just. like wooden frames. Mr Slorricr also itirnished the flushing lank' cisterns for the. water closets which will be used wlien the drainage system icaches Barnard street. Gas p-pes havo been fixed throughom, for lighting, aud also for heading by means ot radiators. Tho architect, as above mentioned, was Mr Walter Pantou, Mr T. l'lingle was the' contractor, Mr W. Wilson plastcriug, Mr- Craigie the painting aud . plumbing, Mr Storrier the ironwork, aud Mr Prlnglo is supplying the fittings. 'the whole building does credit lo rlio company and all concerned, and Mr Ensom, the Timaru manager, should be proud of it. The first customer H> occupy a sample room upstairs is Mr (J. Fic>man, lejuesenting Messrs Mai-donahl, Oiua'r aud'Co.", of Christdnirt-li," 's">ft- " ■jowl's ~'lii r rVli*nifts. who has laid out a very vaiied assortment of samples intuitu of the rooms. The free store also .contains a quantity of. miscellaneous goods.