THE BEGG BUILDING. NEW PREMISES IN MANNERSSTREET.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 150, 22 December 1911, Page 2

THE BEGG BUILDING. NEW PREMISES IN MANNERSSTREET.

From the pavement, wide and imposing as * the front is, one would' not imagine the spaciousness of Chas. Begg and Co. Ltd.'v • new building in Man-neis-street. For many years the old etand in Willis street was familiar enough to all interested in. music, but the size of the premises was not commensurate with the size of the business. The time had arrived, however, in consequence of the magnitude of the Wellington trade, when more room was imperative. This kae been obtained in, the new building. The front is in Mannerestreet. but the building stretches far back and outward into St. Hill-street, where there is a cart dock and ample access to the lift and wholesale depart' inent. On the ground floor is a fine display of brass, wood, and stringed instruments. Besson's brass instruments in handsome fchow cases being the first to catch the eye. Long counters run right around | what is really a handsome hall more like the interior of a bank than a music emporium. As a matter of fact tho ceiling, which is handsomely decorated hi plaster, is nearly 20 feet above the floor, but looks evoh higher. Above and corresponding with the counteis are galleries where music — operas, oratorios, songs, tutors, and other musical works are kept — very large stocks for the wholesale trade being on hand. The showroom on the first floor has be>en planned in liberal Hue? aE to space. There are to bo eeen the firm's specialties in pianos and player pianoe, bearing among other names those of John Brinsmead, Goi'fi, and Kallmanu, Neuman, Kuhla, Schiedmayer und Sohn, and C. Begg and Co., Ltd. Also the Positive organ — a pipe instrument which has become most popular in churches and some private families ; and the Estey organ, a reed instrument, which has been made extremely popular in New Zealand homes. These instruments are exhibited, played upon by accomplished assistants, and prospective purchasers are afforded every facility to try and test the pianos before coming to a decision. " ' On. the top floor the firm has large stocks of instruments of all kinds for the wholesale trade. Hero too, aro workshops for repairs of every kind of instrument from' an organ to a bagpipe chanter. The famous gramophone known as "His Master's Voice" and the zonophone machine twin records are also handled by Chas. Begg and Co.. and a fine show is made of these music machines and (records in a hall specially provid-sd for that purpose. The teaching profession has been thought of. Six well lighted ' spacious and oonflshient having been set apart for teaching. Taken altogether the steel-framed new building in Man-ners-street is a fitting memorial of that I shrewd abudonian who fifty years ago in Dunedin laid the foundations of the firm that bears his name with a stock of four pianos, and laid them well. The architect of the new Begg Building was Mr. E. W. Walden, and, Messrs. Jas. M'Gill and Son, were the builders.