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CLOCK TOWERS PRESENTED

GIFTS TO SUMNER AND NEW BRIGHTON GENEROSITY OF PIONEER RESIDENT A pioneer resident of Christchurch who desires to remain anonymous in the meantime has offered to. present to each of the boroughs of Sumner and NewBrighton a clock and tower. The offer has been gratefully accepted by the respective councils. The value of the gift to New Brighton will be about £BOO, but an estimate of the cost of Sumner's gift cannot be made satisfactorily at the present stage of the preparation of plans. It will, however, be of approximately the same value as that presented to the neighbouring borough.

The clock tower to be erected at New Brighton will be not less than 30 feet high, and will be built of coloured concrete. It will be open on two sides, and there will he space on the concrete floor for a few seats. The council and the. donor have agreed that the tower shall be placed at the seaward end of Seaview road in front of the pier, a little east of King Edward's Well, which was erected in 1902 to commemorate tL2 coronation of King Edward VII. Plans and specifications will be prepared by the council, and tenders will be called and submitted to the donor. Tower at Sumner It is proposed that the tower for the clock at Sumner should be constructed of blue stone with Oamaru stone or similar white facings, but plans have yet to be prepared for submission to the donor. This will harmonise with the extensive foreshore work that has been carried out in rock. It has been suggested that the tower should Le placed toward the Scarborough end of the esplanade, as it is considered that in that position it would be of the greatest benefit to the maximum number of residents and visitors. The lay-out of the esplanade at that point, too, will show off the splendid gift to the best advantage. The clocks themselves will be ordered and paid for separately by the donor, and will be supplied by Petersen's, Ltd., of Christchurch. The specifications require them to be of similar construction —although, of course, smaller—to that of the famous clock on the Singer building. The four dials of each clock will each be six feet in diameter, and will be illuminated at night. The clocks will be of the English synchronised electric turret type, and the equipment will include a master clock which may be housed at any convenient point. A separate unit behind each dial will render nugatory all such extraneous influences on the hands as rain, snow, and wind pressure. Accumulators will be provided so that any fluctuation or cessation of the current supply will have no effect on the time-keeping. Council's Appreciation The Mayor of New Brighton (Mr E. A. M. Leaver), who has been conducting the negotiations between the donor and the council, yesterday conveyed to him the hearty and sincere thanks of the council passed at a special meeting on Thursday evening, and also informed him that the plans would be put in hand at once on the lines he suggested. The clock when installed will be visible over a large area of the foreshore as well as from the tramway bridge and the Esplanade. About eight years ago when it was proposed to build a post office in the borough it was hoped that a clock tower and clock would be included in the building, but unfortunately a single storey building was decided on, and there is still not a single public clock visible from the roadway or beach in the whole of the borough. Mr W. H. Nicholson, Mayor of Sumner, stated last evening that the spirit of the offer to the borough had been deeply appreciated by the council, and the offer had been formally accepted and thcnks conveyed in a letter to the donor over the signatures of the mayor and town clerk. The preliminary negotiations had been kept strictly confidential. Mr Nicholson said that the donor had very generously given the borough engineer some latitude in the matter of cost, as he recognised the desirability of his gift harmonising with the other work on the foreshore. The donor had made several visits to Sumner in the last few days and arrangements were well in hand.

A condition attached to each gift is that the materials used in the construction of the clock and tower should, wherever possible, be of New Zealand origin. Another condition is that the name of the donor shall not be made public until the unveiling of the clocks.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19341117.2.79

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21324, 17 November 1934, Page 14

Word Count
766

CLOCK TOWERS PRESENTED Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21324, 17 November 1934, Page 14

CLOCK TOWERS PRESENTED Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21324, 17 November 1934, Page 14