TOWN CLOCK REMOVED

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 280, 22 August 1931, Page 15

TOWN CLOCK REMOVED

Wanganui Inconvenienced PEOPLE MISS CHIMES Wanganui, August 21. The dependance of a community on a central system of time-keeping has been amply illustrated since the dismantling of the Wanganui town clock began yesterday morning. After thirty years ot habitual looking at the clock for guidance, and listening for the chimes, the sudden and unwarned stoppage- had to some extent disorganised the business community. ■ Curiously the chimes are missed more than the timepiece itself. Those in offices used the chimes as an indication that it was time to stop work and run to catch a tram, or time to stop talking on a street corner and return to work. At a meeting of the Wanganui-Waitotara Patriotic Association two members were late, and attributed their tardiness to the falure of the clock to tell the time, and shortly after, at a meeting of the Wanganui Education Board, the same excuse was used by the chairman and another member of the board.

The city council, at a meeting this week, took no action regarding the erection of a new clock or the re-erection of the same clock and chimes In a different position. It is known .definitely that the authorities will not permit of the clock and heavy mechanical gear being placed on the post office building again. In the meantime Wanganui Is without a reliable timepiece. If, as has been suggested, the city council decides to erect a master electrical clock with synchronised clocks in other parts of the city, it is hoped that the town clock, which is the property of the people of Wanganui, will be erected in some locality within the city area.