GREY CLOCK TOWER

Grey River Argus, 15 December 1943, Page 3

GREY CLOCK TOWER

To be Removed from Post Office AS SAFETY PRECAUTION After having since 1908 been one of the main landmraks in Greymouth, the Post Office tower, ninety feet in height, together with the clock and chimes, is to b e given anI other location in the town. Its removal will shortly begin, when plans and specifications for the work are completed by the Public Works Department. This decision, to carry out which Cabinet has made a grant, is due to the Post and Telegraph Department’s policy of precautions against earthquakes, and other such risks of towers collapsing, as exemplified already by the removal of the Post Office clock towers in Neli son, Gisborne, Palmerston North, I Feilding, Carterton, Cambridge and ! other towns.

; It is 35 years since the present [Post Office and tower, for which Mr IJ. Drake, of Greymouth, was the (contractor, was completed and opened, the tower and chimes having partly been provided by a Borough Council subscription of £3OO and partly by the Government. The clock and chimes were obtained from England at a price of £438 f.o.b. Liverpool. The Mayor. Mr F, A. Kitchingham, was informed of the Government’s decision by. the Chief Postmaster, Mr M. R. Aldridge, and the /Borough Council to-morrow evening will dis--1 cuss the matter of a new site for th e .clock and bells. It is not known whether the clock iwill in future have the same degree of elevation as, at present. Mr Aldridge stated the tower has

a base of sixteen feet square, and in -1929 after the Murchison earthquake it was . strengthened with steel and concrete. The fact of its having been buttressed, however, meant, he said, that should the tower come down, it would , fall in one piece, and the danger would be all the greater. The Post Office w'as a centre in an emergency for communications, and if an earthquake demolished the tower, the result might be a disaster for the office staffs. Every section, telegraphic, postal, and money order,, along with the counters, were inside of the margain +o which in its descent the tower might reach in the event of a collapse, while there also were adjacent buildings and portions of two streets liable to danger. While the safeguarding of life was the main object in view, Mr Aldridge stated that in the operating room there Was valuable telegraphic equipment and carrier telephony apparatus which could not now be replaced. He added that the Department regarded the clock and bells ,as belonging to the citizens. The municipal authorities in other centres where such towers had been demolished had erected new towers in the business area for the clocks and bells, and this might be done here.