CENTENNIAL TOWER PILLAR-BOX

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 303, 20 September 1939, Page 6

CENTENNIAL TOWER PILLAR-BOX

•Mails To Be Specially Postmarked

Exhibition visitors who care to scale the 200 or so steps of the spiral staircases winding up Centennial Tower will find at the top not only a magnificent view but also a pillar-box where they may post their letters. Special interest will be lent to mail posted in this box, as arrangements have been made by the Post Office authorities to stamp such letters with a special postmark, giving the date and place. Besides the natural interest of greetings received from this spot by people in other parts of the Dominion, such letters will constitute unusual souvenirs of the occasion, and may even acquire special interest to collectors.

From the top of the tower a memorable view may be had of Melrose, Rongotai, Lyall Bay and Kilbirnie, and in clear weather of the South Island mountains in the distance beyond Cook Strait. A proposal was put forward some while ago to place a telescope on the tower, and a powerful one was offered for the purpose; but in view of war-time restrictions, and the military importance of some of the places within view, it is possible that this will not now be done.

Since its completion the tower has lost what was formerly one of its most remarkable features —its voice. The song of the wind in the wooden frames was like that of a gale in the rigging of a- sailing ship, or of the northerlies in the wireless masts upon Mount Victoria, or like the droned lament remarked by Kipling'pf the trade wihds in the coconut palms of Levuka. Since the external tegument of the tower was set in place, however, the sound has been stilled.