NEW IYA STUDIO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1934, Page 8

NEW IYA STUDIO.

PRELIMINARY WORK. RAIN PREVENTS START. No lime is to be lost by the contractors in the building of the new IYA broadcasting station at the top of Shortland Street. The acceptance of the tender was completed only on Tuesday, but this morning the contractors had men on the job ready to start clearing the bush which covers the eite of tho building to be erected. A steam navvy and several lorries were also on the job, but they did not start, for rain set in just after nine o'clock. The only men working were a man securing sonje firewood for himself, and .a University student who was gathering bark from a kowhai for experimental purpose*. Mr. C. W. Ravenhall, head of the successful contracting firm, said this morning that the job would be pushed along with all speed, and as many men as could conveniently be employed would be engaged. The period allowed in the contract is eight months, and given anything like a good run in the matter of weather, Mr. Ravenhall expects to have everything ready for the Broadcasting Board to take possession at the end of September. The site of the now station has for many years had a small plantation of native and exotic trees. The house on the property wrs once the homo of the late Dr. Humphrey Haines, an old Auckland identity. Originally the high land in the vicinity -was fringed with pohutukawa trees, and a path led down the cliff to what wae once the Auckland foreshore. Nearby on tho beach was a small spring of clear, cold water. Early Auckland residents used to go there with pitchers and jugs, and sailors used to roll casks ashore to fill them.