NEW POST OFFICES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 200, 24 August 1945, Page 7

NEW POST OFFICES

AUCKLAND SUBURBS

TAMAKI, ROSKILL, BELMONT

The establishment of new post offices is planned for Tamaki, Mount Roskill and Belmont. This is scheduled on the post-war programme of the Post and Telegraph Department providing, at an estimated cost of nearly £4,000,000, for the erection of some 300 buildings.

Insofar as the Auckland land district is c oncerned, the programme comprises some 30 new post offices, 14 alterations to post office and other buildings. 32 houses for postmasters, 14 store-garage buildings, and an automatic exchange building. The ne w post offices include a two-storey concrete building at Kaikohe, which is under construction and will be completed next year, and also buildings at Otahuhu, Pukekohe, Morrinsville, Matamata, Te Kuiti, Whakatane, Te Aroha, Te Puke, Welles]ey Street (Auckland), Coromandel, Glen Eden and Whangarei.

The programme also takes care of post office needs in the' extensive new housing development in the suburbs of Auckland. In this connection the principal development will probably be in the Tamaki area. A large office will probably be required in the vicinity of Point England, with smaller offices at one or two other points. Housing development is also responsible for a decision to provide a, new office in the' Mount RoskilT district to-be started near the present Dominion Road tram terminus. On the North Shore an office will probably be provided at Belmont.

The Te Kuiti building was commenced at the end of 1940,.but the work was suspended in 1942 on account of defence construction. The contract was terminated and tenders for the remainder of the work will be invited in the near future.

Alterations to existing buildings include the. remodelling of the ground floor of the older portion of the Auckland chief post office building, by which the floor will be devoted almost entirely to counter accommodation and public spaces. It is anticipated that tenders for the work will be called in the near future.

Under the prevailing difficult conditions for manpower and materials, and also on account of the operation of national priorities, progress is somewhat slow at present, and it would appear that the programme, as it stands, will take a number of years to complete. However, plans for the more urgent works are being prepared as expeditiously as a shortage of architects and draughtsmen will permit, and the work of erection will be put in hand as soon as the necessary priorities can be obtained. It will be appreciated that in the allotment of priorities post office buildings are' co-ordinated and considered with all classes of buildings—state houses, Government buildings, local body buildings and private buildings.