DEMOLITION OF TOWER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20965, 31 August 1931, Page 5

DEMOLITION OF TOWER.

CAMBRIDGE TOWN CLOCK. PUBLIC WORKS DECISION. BOROUGH COUNCIL PROTESTS; [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] CAMBRIDGE, Sunday." Following upon the passing of correspondence between the Cambridge Borough Council and the Public Works Department on the defective condition of the top portion of tho post office clock tower, and the subsequent unfavourable report of the department's engineers, the council has received notice from tho department that it proposes immediately to start the work of demolishing the towe:r, tho council being asked to store the chiming clock.

This communication was received with , mixed feelings by the council, and a certain amount of indignation has been raised among the people. The post office clock tower was erected in 1907 at a cost to the department of £560. Tb® department also subsidised pound for . pound £3OO raised by the people for the purchase of the clock. Defects were found in the tower a few years after its erection, but it has housed the clock ever since. After the recent earthquakes it has been felt by the department that ths tower is a menace.

When the matter came before tho council there was a difference of opinion. The Mayor, Mr. C. H. Priestley, agreed with the department. However, other members said they thought the department should at least havo made some provision to compensate the people by offering to subsidise the erection of the clock, somewhere else. Some also were of the opinion that it would not be a difficult or costly undertaking to take off the top portion of the tower and rebuild it in wood or steel.

Mr. M. Wells said the department at least should have honoured its agreement made when the people of Cambridge provided the £3OO to efficiently house the clock.

After two amendments had been defeated, a motion by Mr. TV ells was carried, that the council express its strong disappointment at the department's attitude and intention, and that the department be advised that the council will forthwith apply to the Supreme Court for an injunction to restrain it from proceeding with the demolition until it has made some definite attempt to honour its, agreement.