Bank Calls End To Lift Joyriding

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32393, 4 September 1970, Page 1

Bank Calls End To Lift Joyriding

Because of the inconvenience caused to customers and tenants by schoolchildren riding up and down the escalator and lifts in the Bank of New Zealand building extra staff have taken up positions to dissuade such joyriding.

One at the children’s tricks is to take all three lifts to the top, preferably simultaneously, and tq press every floor button before getting out This effectively slows down

the descent by causing 10 unnecessary stops—to the frustration of bona fide users waiting at the ground floor. These school holidays there have, however, been no stink bombs left in the lifts (this happened during the May holidays). A commissionaire waits at the head of the escalator to stop children riding up and down indiscriminately. “After all, this is a banking chamber—not a department store,” he said. A female member of the bank staff waits in the foyer in her capacity as a hostess, but she is also there to keep a watchful eye on groups of unattended children who might be heading for the lifts. A sign greets visitors in the foyer telling them that the observation tower on the roof is open only between 2.15 p.m. and 3.15 p.m. and that children can go up only if they are accompanied by an adult The time restriction, said the hostess, was imposed because of vandalism. Even so, reaching for the heights remains attractive—judging by the steady stream of children who climb the steps to the Cathedral tower each day.