NEW HALL FOR WORKERS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24610, 5 July 1945, Page 6

NEW HALL FOR WORKERS

LYTTELTON NEED SAILORS’ HOME UNSUITABLE FOR CONVERSION Mr J. G. Collins, the architect, reported to the Lyttelton Harbour Board yesterday that the Sailors’ Home at Lyttelton was not suitable for conversion into a hall, either in size or in construction. Mr R. E. Cairns said the board would now have to face the fact that a new hall would have to be built in Lyttelton, as neither the Coronation Hall nor the Sailors’ Home was suitable. “Are there any rumours round the waterfront as to what the employers are likely to do?” asked the chairman (Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon). Mr Cairns: Only rumours—nothing definite. Mr Mac Gibbon said employers in other ports were going into the question of providing accommodation for their employees. The provision had been a burden on the board in the past. , . , Mr W. B. Laing suggested that the board should approach the employers. Mr Mac Gibbon: We will hear in due course. . To improve conditions in the Coronation Hall when a considerable number of persons were present and the atmosphere became heavily charged with smoke, the board decided to install ventilating fans. Mr Cairns said that the blow fans formerly installed blew a man’s hat off in the hall. The chairman said the ventilation was needed—he had attended a meetirig during the tobacco shortage, and he could only imagine the smoke when tobacco supplies were normal.