HISTORIC EDIFICE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 63, 8 December 1931, Page 10

HISTORIC EDIFICE

Government Life Office ORIGIN RECALLED Many Points of Interest Ring of pick and clang of crowbar have replaced the click of the typewriter in the corridors of the Government Life Insurance building, now being demolished, on Customhouse Quay. In some places, where the slates have been stripped from the roof, the sunshine was streaming through yesterday on to jumbled heaps of fallen brick-work, plaster, and baulks of timber, levered, jerked, pulled and pushed from the positions which they had held for nearly forty years. Mr. F. de J. Clere, who was brought in as architect of the building after the sudden’ death of Mr. Toxward, is naturally interested in the work of demolition. He gives some interesting details as to how the building came about, recalling that the first idea was to build the offices so as to practically enclose "the old Provincial Government’s offices and Council Chamber. The decision of the Government of the day, 1892-3, was, in the first instance, to build the north wing, that part of the building flanked by Brandon Street To encourage architects a competition was held, and a young and then unknown man won the prize. This was Joshua Charlesworth, who afterward became better known, and subsequently was the designer of the Wellington Town Hall. As Mr. Charlesworth was an unknown quantity, the Government decided to associate with him the late Mr. Toxward. That gentleman’s estimate for the building was about £19,000. The plans were prepared for the one wing, but the building had not been commenced when Mr. Charlesworth determined to try and better his lot, and left for Melbourne. Later Mr. Toxward died suddenly, and as Mr. Charlesworth was not on the scene the Government had to find someone to carry on, and it was on the personal recommendation of the Premier, Mr.’ John Ballance, that Mr. Clere was appointed. Revision of Plans. “It was pretty well known,” said Mr. Clere yesterday, “that Mr. Toxward was rather an expensive architect, and on going into the plans very carefully, I came to the conclusion that I could build both wings and the middle for the estimated amount, £19,000. To do this I had to cut a little here and there, but without imperilling the strength of the building itself. In the. end I think the whole building cost between £19,000 and £20,000. It is rather wonderful, you know, for a building of that class would probably cost four times that amount to-day. • “Some people imagine that I regret the demolition of the building,” Mr. Clere proceeded. "I have no regrets at all in the matter. Indeed, after the rather terrible effects of the Hawke’s Bay earthquake I am not sure that every building erected prior to 1912 should not come down. Remarkable in Its Way. “It is, however, a remarkable building in its way. It stands bn 12in. square totara piles, driven through the reclaimed land to the solid. It will be interesting to see the piles if they are drawn when the foundations of the new building are being laid. The best of heart timber only was used, and the brickwork was sound. It is roofed in Welsh slates. No one would, of course, erect a building lik< it to-day—wood and brick, with 16ft. and 20ft. ceilings, extravagance in space. “What is interesting about it is that it was one of the first buildings in Wellington to have electric light installed, and it was absolutely the first in the city to have an elevator and central heating, so it is historical from a builder’s point of view. “It was considered the loyal thing to do to employ New Zealand stone, so the facings of the doorways and windows were framed in Oamaru and Mt Somers stone. Some of the latter was used low down, as it was considered harder than Oamaru stone. The experience of thirty-eight years has shown, however, that the Oamaru stone has weathered better than that from Mt Somers.”