CHIEF POST OFFICE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 81, 4 March 1938, Page 6

CHIEF POST OFFICE

IMPORTANT CHANGES. PLANS FOR ADDITIONS. Sweeping changes are to be made in the lay-out of tho facilities for service to the public at the Palmerston North Chief Post Office with the completion of extensive alterations and additions, the plans for which are now ready. There will be a new entrance from tho Square at the Broadway end of tho present building, leading to the telephone and telegraph departments, then an unbroken counter carving behind the clock-tower corner to the point where letters are now posted. Next, extending along Main Street, will be the money order and savings bank departments, the latter in a new building to be erected in tho present yard. Another entrance is to bo provided from Main Street at the eastern end of the addition, with the private mail boxes along th,e eastern side of tho new building, corresponding to their present location. Tenders are to close at the end of this month and the work is to be completed within a year from the date of the acceptance of the successful tender. AVitli a frontage of 72ft to Main Street, and a depth of 90ft, the new building is to be of two storeys and will conform exactly in design with the present edifice. The addition is, in broad terms, a square, which will roach practically to tlie wooden structure until recently occupied by the telegraph engineer and his staff, and which over 30 years ago was shifted from the corner site after many years of usefulness as the Post Office. As in the present building, an alley will run down tho eastern side of the new section to allow mail vans to back into the mail room, while another entrance for vehicular traffic will give access to the garage and workshops at the rear. AVhile there will be a completely changed Post Office from the public’s point of view, the internal arrangements will also differ. On the first floor of the new building space is set aside for the telegraph operators’ department. THE GROUND FLOOR.

Three public telephone boxes are shown on the plans for the new vestibule to be built, off the Square, at the Broadway end of tlie present building. Doors lead to five toll-call boxes, with 12 desks for the use ot persons sending telegrams. The counter used at the telegrams and toll office is to be placed further back, to be 16ft. from the outside wall, and will extend without a break behind the clock-tower corner right round to the end of the counter where stamps are now bought. The latter will be charged from its present location to 16 feet from the Main Street wall. The plans show a space set aside for stamps and registration business at the point where the money order and savings bank department is now found. On the curve behind the corner is shown the parcels department, and beyond that, facing Main Street, in the place of the stamps division, will be situated the foreign parcels and Customs section. No alteration is apparently contemplated in * regard to the lobby where letters are posted. At the eastern end of the public space in the savings bank department a door will lead into a vestibule which gives entrance off Main Street. ROOMS FOR STAFF. At the rear of the new building additional mall room space is provided and the plans indicate that the new room will be joined with the old one without doors. Various rooms are shown in the body of the building behind the counters, indications being that they will be large and of such-a type as to meet the demands for staff accommodation commensurate with the growth of the business carried out at this centre.