Maddison & Co. Stand Fast

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 161, 24 June 1935, Page 8

Maddison & Co. Stand Fast

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The above gentlemen at the moment are under a heavy bombardment irom objectors to the town clock site. Let them have courage. Here comes Blucher with heavy reinforcements. Watch the enemy get a crack. In the first place 1 want to say that tlie chosen site for the “ivy mantled tower” is in my opinion excellent. More traffic pasees at that point than at any other point in this town—ch, city. That being so, more people will cock their eye to the clock than would be so were it placed at the side of any other road in the metropolis. All proposals that place the tower in the street should be ruled right out. Modern traffic demands that roads should give a clear right-of-way and the old obstructions of earlier days have caused and are still causing in many cities the expenditure of a great deal of money to remove them Wellington not long ago removed the old Queen Victoria station on account of traffic and view obstruction. The road at that place was W’ider than Heretaunga street, too. Napier is just removing the old South African War Memorial for similar reasons. Auckland has for some time been removing all tramway centre poles in order to give a clear right-of-way on the streets, and many of these etreets are wider than Heretaunga street. Auckland last year removed the famous old “Three Lamps” pole at Ponsonby. This was a great sentimental wrench, the spot being historical and the lamps a connection with the old coaching days terminus. However, modern traffic demanded its removal. The pier of th« railway bridge over the Hutt road ia a naßty thing and yearly takes its toll of car crashes. With regard to an erection spanning the street, standing on four legs as per Eiffel Tower, there would be no structural difficulties to this. But the idea is too bizarre and is not warranted.

Looking back, 1 cannot recall any objections to the site when the clock was located above the Post Office. Do you realise that all opposition, raiser objection to the view point of the clock? They say the range of view is small. So it is with Big Ben in London. Similarly placed are the clocks in Wellington, Auckland, Napier, New Plymouth, Invercargill, etc. But we have ears to hear with and that is why the clock has chimes, and it is time objectors woke up to that fact. I do not suggest it, but if any alterations are made, I say go uf The waves of eound would then cany over with less obstruction. All that I have read indicates that the writers are obsessed with the necessity oi seeing the clock, but we must realise that by day or night, and particularly at night, it is by sound rather than by sight of the clock that the greater number will benefit. It therefore appears to me that a better location to serve both sight and sound could not have been chosen and proving at the same time a most artistic structure at the central point of our city.—Yours, etc., DENNIS W. HURSTHOUSE. June 24, 1935.