AFTER TWENTY-ONE YEARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9328, 11 October 1893, Page 5

AFTER TWENTY-ONE YEARS.

A REMINISCENCE OF PROVINCIAL DAYS. [by telegraph. association.] Wellington, Tuesday. The foundation-stone of the old Provincial Buildings, which has just been demolished to make room for the new Government Insurance offices, was unearthed to-day. In the cavity of the stone was a bottle containing copies of the Evening Post, the Wellington Independent, and the Christian Messenger of January, 1872. There were also coins, consisting of a sovereign, halfsovereign, two and a-half gold American can dollar pieces, silver pieces from a crown down to 3d, and copper coins from Id to £d. The cavity was covered with a brass plate, somewhat corroded, which bears the date of the laying of the stone {29th January, 1872) by the Hon. Sir William Fitzherbert, Superintendent of the Province of Wellington, in the presence of Henry Bunny, Provincial Secretary and Treasurer ; George Hunter, hon. member of the Executive Council ; Charles Borlace, Provincial Solicitor ; W. W. Taylor, Speaker of the Provincial Council; A. W. Renall, Chairman of Committees ; Joe Dransfield, mayor of the city of Wellington, and others. The coins were in a good state of preservation, but the newspapers had suffered somewhab from damp. The wings of the Insurance Building are already constructed, and the main building will be proceeded wiph at once.