THE OLD TOWN CLOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19660, 11 June 1927, Page 8

THE OLD TOWN CLOCK.

FRIEND OF 50 YEARS AGO. NOW IMMURED IN LIMBO. IGNOMINIOUS RESTING PLACE, THE COBWEBS OF A BASEMENT. Auckland once possessed a town clock, which was the pride of Queen Street. It surmounted the three-storey building which was the home of the New Zealand Insurance Company until replaced by the tall seven-storey structure that towers today above the adjacent business places. There, for about fifty years, the three dials of the clock were the best-known faces in the business parts of the city, lighted up as they were after nightfall. Its bell not only boomed out the hours of day and night, but also served the purpose of a fire alarm, for it was the custom of the caretaker to sound a tocsih whenever an outbreak occurred, in harmony with the regular firebells that were installed in different parts of the city until up-to-date electric alarms took their place a quarter of a century ago. The history of the old clock dates from 1870, when an agreement was executed between the Board of Commissioners that governed Auckland City until the advent of municipal institutions, on the one hand, and the New Zealand Insurance Company on the other, in which mention was made of ''a clock with three dials, now offered for sale by Mr. Bartlett, watchmaker, Queen Street." Under the deed, the company agreed to erect a tower specially for the clock—and a stately tower was duly provided—to, have the clock regularly wound up aid properly lighted by night, and to keep it insured for £250. Period of War Service. In course of time the old building had to make way for another, more commodious, and the clock was dismantled. When the world war broke out in 1914, and New Zealand mustered its young manhood in two great camps near Wellington, the clock was called upon for another period of service. It was transferred to the Featherston camp, and for as long as men were undergoing training there for the driving back of the enemies of civilisation, it showed and sounded the hours. When peace was restored it was once more dismantled, repacked and brought back to Auckland. Since then it has reposed ignominiously in the basement of the Town Hall, risk ing rust and cobwebs, and of no use to anybody, though still capable of further . service. Suggested Use in a Suburb. i The question is often asked whethei the City Fathers could not well restore the citizens' old friend to public utility. It seems, however, to be the policy ,of the corporation to leave its component parts in limbo, on the off-chance that there may yet be a chance -of turning them into hard cash. Until that event occurs, the dog-in-the-manger policy seems likely to prevail, unless some pub-lic-spirited member of the City Council gives a lead to his colleagues in a movement that shall furnish some outlying part of the city "with the convenience tjiat Queen Street already enjoys from the exhibition of newer big time-pieces. At one time it was suggested that the public library at Remuera was a place where the old clock could with advantage be re-erected. No doubt other divisions of the city would also claim to be entitled to its service. Meanwhile, the community can well be reminded that a useful and time-honoured public servant, superannuated, but still capable of servic6, is being left at the mercy of the ravages of time, either unattended or incurring expenses for which there is no return.