ELECTRICITY HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 283, 27 August 1935, Page 11

ELECTRICITY HOUSE

City Council Departments’

New Premises

MOVING IN NEXT WEEK

After being located for over 25 years in Harris Street, the office, workshop and showroom staffs of the Wellington City Council tramways ami electric lighting departments will at the week-end commence to move to the new building in lower Cuba Street (formerly the premises of Mackey, Logan and Caldwell), which have been entirely altered internally' to accommodate the various staffs associated with tiie department. The electric lighting department has been located on the present site in Harris Street .since the early years of electricity in Wellington. Photographs of the original offices show the site surrounded by unoccupied acres of reclaimed land, which takes one back nearly 50 years in the history of the locality. So that it can scarcely be said that this department has been in the least degree uneconomical as far as office accommodation is concerned. For some years the two activities—tramways, ami the supply of electricity for light and power—-were .separate establishments,’ and there are those who think to-day tliati it would be better if they had been kept separated, for the simple reason that whereas both services had to grow with the city, the tramways department has had to meet with the competition of motor traffic, and thousands of people who 20 years ago had to use the trams to reach the city daily now depend on their own cars; on the other hand, the growth and popularity of electrical power steadily increases and apparently knows no limit.

For years the City Council has been' talking of providing new offices for the departments, and for years has put off the inevitable. The coming of the new central library, and tiie demand for the ground on which the existing offices stand, may have had something to do witli the pending change. Certain it is that the council secured good value when it purchased the Cuba Street property at the bottom of the market, as it is one that must increase in value as tiie city spreads out and population increases. Mr. M. Cable, general manager of the department, stated yesterday that the change-over would necessarily take some little time, but he hoped to get a start at the end of the week, while he was planning for the revenue staff to change over on Monday next. The others would follow as circumstances dictated. There would be an official opening of the new offices; but that would not take place until tho removal had been completed, probably some time during the week after next. Mr. Cable was sure that the change would be appreciated by the public as the new offices would be so close to the junction of so many main retail streets —Cuba Street, Manners .Street and Courtenay Place—which would make it handy for people to pay their accounts.