ELECTRIC FOUNTAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 71, 21 February 1939, Page 11

ELECTRIC FOUNTAIN

PROPOSAL FOR SQUARE. MEMORIAL SITE AVAN TED. Approval of tho suggestion advanced that the electric fountain to be erected as a. Centennial memorial should bo placed in the centre of the Square was given by the Palmerston North City Council, last evening, when it decided to ask the Returned Soldiers’ Association to concur in a proposal to move the existing war memorial to a site in the Square between its present location and Coles’s Building, to permit. of the installation of the fountain. Plans of several lay-outs for tho remodelling of the centre of the Square, including provision for a civic block, after the removal of the railway line, have l>een before the council. Submitting a joint report to the council on the matter, Alessrs J. R. Hughes (city engineer) and P. Black (city curator) stated:—“AA : e have given the question of a good deal of consideration and have prepared a number of suggested layouts which are being submitted for the council’s consideration. The more we went into the matter the more we realised that a decision on the best site was not easy of solution without giving consideration to other matters. The sketches submitted contain alternative proposals, and we are putting them forward in the hope that they will form a basis of discussion, from which further ideas may be evolved before deciding on the final site. The matters referred to above, which we thought it right and proper should be considered now, are those concerned with the Soldiers’ Alemorial and the suggested erection of a civic block containing municipal offices. “The plans, nine in number, arc selfexplanatory; one shows the present layout of the Square Gardens, another how it was intended to complete the area surrounding the Soldiers’ Memorial after the removal of the railway lines- A further plan shows a layout in the Square with a proposed civic block in the dead centre, which would involve the removal of the AA r ar Alemorial. All the other plans contain suggestions for alternate sites for civic block, fountain, and AVar Alemorial, utilising the lands which will be vacated by the Railway Department between Ala.in Street and Coles’s Building, and extending slightly to the west of the Square. “There are quite a number of factors to be taken into consideration in determining the most suitable site for the electric fountain. From information supplied we are of the opinion that the principal factor to be kept in mind so that the fountain is given the most desirable setting is that the site should not be too restricted, for the reason that when the fountain is playing a very fine spray or mist is formed and carried some distance, even with the lightest wind. As a fifteen jet projector is recommended, the diameter of the spilling basin will require to be at least 100 feet, and ample open space provided surrounding tl-*3 fountain and poiff. “In offering our comments on the plans submitted, we are inclined to favour the one wherein the electric fountain,would be placed in the centre of the Square, the Soldiers’ Memorial removed to a site a short distance away in a reserve io he provided between Alain Street and Coles’s Building. Immediately behind the A\ : ar Alemorial would be placed the civic block, the whole three units being in line.’’