MODERN METHODS.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17839, 11 October 1929, Page 9

MODERN METHODS.

MASSEY COLLEGE

WORK IN PROGRESS. The Massey Agricultural College presented a vastly different scene when visited the other afternoon by a Dominion representative from what it did three weeks ago. Usually so quiet' and deserted now ttiat . the •majority of the students are on vacation, it was bristling with activity, and stacks of timber and machinery showed that all was ready to place massive buildings in the setting of green hills. With 60 men hard at work, the necessary -preliminary labour has been almost -completed. The preliminary work in connection with such a large building Is necessarily great, and many hundreds of tons of machinery and material have passed through the college gates during the last few 7 weeks. A large amount of excavating and levelling work has been, and still is, being carried out. Excavating for the science block is necessaity to a depth of 11 feet, and for the main refectory block to a depth of 8 feet. This in itself is no mean task.

The machinery and equipment being used Is all made in the contracting firm’s own factory, and is the most modern that has evor been used in Palmerston North. Towering high above the workers are two huge cement chutes which, when completed, will be 150 -feet in height. A powerful automatic electric pumping plant has also been installed to pump water from the Tiritea Stream, 150 feet below. Another task of some size which is being carried out at present is the preparation -of the reinforcing, and a gang of -men is at work continuously twisting and turning long iron rods, which will bind the concrete together. The refectory block must be finished by March, but the contract time for 'the completion -of the science block is two years.