THE NEW G.P.O.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 887, 5 August 1910, Page 4

THE NEW G.P.O.

. -« STONE TO BE LAID ON MONDAY. Invitations have been issued to the ceremony in connection with the Joying of the foundation stone of the General Post Office, now in course of construction in Featherstou Street. The stono is.to bo laid by the Postmaster-General (Sir Joseph- Ward) on Monday afternoon next, at 3 o'clock, and the scene of the ceremony will be adjacent to the maiij. entrance, near the centre of the I'eather- / stem Street frontage of the block. The new post oilice promises to be on* of the most-substantial and handsoino buildings in the whole of the Dominion. • It fills the block bounded by the present" General Post Oilice, Panama .Street, ' Brandon Street, and Featherston Street, ' and is being erected by Messrs. J. and A. . Wilson, from the plans of the Govern- • nieut Architect (Mr. John Campbell) in" solid-stone. A feature in the construction is that the building is being built ' • ' of stone trom practically new quarries on the West Coast of the South Island. The base is of Dobson's stone—a plain, slate-coloured sandstone, from which will rise four stories in granite, a very handsome, coarse-grained "pepper and salt" stone, quarried in Tonga Bay, near.Nelson.' In connection with the ceremony, it if interesting to recall that the first General Post Office of any architectural pretension—a fine, three-storied brick structure —erected by Messrs. Barrv and M'Dowell from the plans of the late Mr. .Thoams . ' Turnbull, on the site of the present General Post Office, was built during the years 18834. This building was gutted by hie in 1887, and many valuable records were destroyed. The present building, which has for some years been mncr too small to : accommodate every brancl of the General .Post Office, was erectw by Mr. CaTmichaol.