TRAMWAY BOARD.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2096, 2 November 1920, Page 2

TRAMWAY BOARD.

i ■ ■ m ■■■ NEW BUILDING OPENED. ROLL OF HONOUR UNVEILED. A roll of honour of employees of the Christeliureh Tramway Board was un veiled yesterday at the same time ai the board's new office building ii Cathedral Square was officially declared | open. Mr S. A. Staples, deputy-chair J man of the board, performed the doubb ceremony in the absence of the chair man, the Hon. John Barr, M.L.C. j In unveiling the roll of honour, Mi | Staples remarked that 73 of the board'; j employees had left the tramway ser 'vice ami gone to the Front. Most ol 'them had returned but there were some | —lo in all—who would not return. He | wished to extend the sympathy of those present to the relatives of those mer jwho had paid the supreme sacrifice am ] hoped that time would assuage theii I grief. He apologised for the absence lof Mr Barr, who wrote that the'board I was proud of those who went as well at I those who could not go but had helped j the others. Apologies had also been | received from Messrs William Reeee, I first chairman of the board and S. K. !Sleigh, of the Lytteltori Harbour Board, ! He then unveiled the roll of honour. , It is in marble and is placed inside the entiance of the new building. It is [about six by three feet and contains the names of all the board's employees who went to the Front, the names of those who died being lettered in gold, I these being: W. G; Skelton. H. P. Hopikins. F. Forsythe, W. Watson, H. J. i Wicks, W. Wing. A. Burton, W. Martin, jll. F. Hay and J. C. Tulloch. I Mr Staples afterwards declared the I building open. He said that the board had felt that the offices in Falsgrave Street were inconvenient in being so [far away from the centre of the tramjway system in Christeliureh. The i ground covered was 19£ perches and the buildings and ground together had cost j £27,600. The present building would be | a great convenience to both the public iand the staff. The top story had been I let to the Lvttelton Harbour Board for i£2so per.annum. Mr H. B. Sorensen, chairman of the i Lvttelton Harbour Board, congratulated the Tramwav Board on having the best ; system in New Zealand as well as the ,most courteous officials. He envied the j board its new building. Dr H. T. J. Thacker, M.P., was glad that the first thing recognised in the j new building was the men who had I served New Zealand in the Great War. The memorial was the first to be erected |in Cathedral Square. Votes of thanks "were passed to Messrs H. T. W. McLellan (the board's architect and draughtsman). E. P. Turner (supervising engineer"), Frank Thompson (secretary), and H. Pearce (a member of the board) who had lent valuable aid. .The building is in three stories, of which the upper will be occupied by the Harbour Board and is built after the Italian Renaissance style of architecture. The frontage of the ground floor is in Timaru stone and the two others in Oamaru stone.