NEW RAILWAY OFFICES.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14758, 30 August 1913, Page 6

NEW RAILWAY OFFICES.

OPENING CELEBRATIONS.

A successful social function, to celebrate the opening of the new railway offices was held in the building, Moorhouse avenue, on Wednesday. In proposing the toast' "Success to tlio New Offices," the chairman of tho Railway Officers' Institute, Mr J. Young, stated that New Zealandors wero. a progressive people, and that fact was fully established when the great improvement effected in building construction .generally throughout the Dominion was realised. The Government were taking a leading part in such improvements, and were providing more suitable ami up-to-dato buildings for tho accommodation of its officers and for tho convenience of the j public doing business with the various I departments. The conversion of tho old Albert Bond Store, a plain mass of bricks And heavy baulks of timber, into the commodious offices was an achievement of which the I>istrict Engineer, Mr C, Helm Biss, tho assistant engineer, Mr C. T. Jeffreys, and the foreman, Mr W. M. Cox, might well be oroud. Tho toast was enthusiastically honoured. Mr C. Holm Biss. in t"bp course-'of his reply, stated that although tho building had no architectural preteneions, n.ixl could not compare with the large Government offices in Cathedral sn_!i.?ro iirr- in several other centres, etill it was a great improvement on the old building, and the offices wore suitable for tho work for many years to come. He hoped that before very new cor»ds offioos would be provided, and that a, hall suitable for social gatherings would be erected, so that railwnymcn would have greater opportunities to. attend social gatherings of the kind they were enjoying that night.

A thoroughly , enjoyable evening was spent, and dancing was kept up to a late hour*.