TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. MONDAY, 16th AUGUST, 1937. A DISTRICT ASSET.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3940, 16 August 1937, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. MONDAY, 16th AUGUST, 1937. A DISTRICT ASSET.

THE commendable ideals of utility and beauty were combined in tha recommendations brought forward by the committee responsible for the selection of a new location for the town clock in Te Awamutu borough. Following the guidance of competent advisers, and assisted by State executives responsible in departments of planning and traffic control, the committee has found a happy’ solution of what promised to be a vexatious problem. As a first step the procedure wisely followed the lines of public consultation, with freedom for suggestion, and from that 'foundation the committee has perfected plans which, from the considerations of beauty and utility, must gain widespread approval. It can be said that something more than a tower to house the clock is involved in this plan, because there is traffic regulation that is singularly’ important. Moreover, there is the remodelling of the clock to not only enhance its potential value but also to do away with the recurring maintenance. The type of installation recommended by the clock-makers incorporates electrical energy passing through a system which would be in nowise affected by interruptions in the power-supply services, and, moreover, which is infinitely more accurate in time-recording than the old mechanical system. The greatest virtue here, though, is the flexibility of the installation. In one southern town the master clock is in a building a mile removed from the main dials, and there are other sets of dials spread over a three miles radius. In yet another town the firebell tower has been utilised for the chimes, and instead of costly and weighty bells the sound is amplified and transmitted through a loudspeaker device. This type of installation has practically no limitations in its scope of adaptability and utility. Another factor surrounding it is the elimination of unnecessary weight from the tower itself, the removal of weights which would have a swinging motion, with a consequent lessening and saving in the structural costs. On this point—the type of tower —the committee is silent except to admit that available finance must guide the planners. Obviously, with an electrified timepiece, the dials

could be mounted on a fencing post—from that to a granite tower imagination may run to the limits of finance. It may be taken for granted that Te Awamutu will not rest content with a hardwood pole at the junction of its principal thoroughfares, but that structural beauty will combine with the ideal of utility. In this, the basic plan of the Main" Highways Board is a happy beginning. The tower is set as near as possible to the centre line of all three streets, and would thus occupy a place of prominence, being seen readily from the footways in all directions. In such a position the clock should surely be an ornament of which the whole district would be proud. A first glance at the highway plan prompts the inquiry why the centre circle — the tower itself being encircled by a footway and a grass plot—is so large, tut clearly this is a vital part of the traffic plan. A smaller base might well become an obstruction, but the lay-out as shown provides a natural turning circle along which the defined streams of traffic would naturally move. Here again the traffic lanes arc designed for safety, and leave no need for any vehicle to actually cross over the path of any other vehicle. Actually the process is to create a traffic “ filter ” —meaning, in short, that the traffic flow is automatically set in channels along which it can move freely and with safety. No matter how regarded—whether the idea! be the ornamental nature of the arrangement or the utilitarian value of the clock.—the suggestion as it stands is about as complete and as desirable as could be devised; and, more than the clock itself, there is offered a most welcome solution of the traffic problem in that most important part of the borough. Shortly a public meeting will be gsked to finally endorse the proposals, and that, it may be assumed, is but a formality or routine in the procedure which expresses public interest. The next step will be the more practical one of finance-raising. In this the whole district will unite. That is certain; and ere long—soon, be it hoped—the present plans will take actual shape and the town clock will again adorn the locality where for so many years it was such a familiar landmark.