A CHANGED SCENE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 14, 12 October 1942, Page 4

A CHANGED SCENE

Wellington Town Hall

For the first time in its existence the interior of the Wellington Town Hall, now vacated by the clerical staffs (the city treasurer’s staff excepted), has a deserted look quite distinct from the usual air of bustling activity associated with the municipal eentre. Locked office doors are hung with notices of the new address of their former occupants (in the central library building), and the long semi-dark corridors only echo the footfalls of the cleaners. Within the big hall tubular steel scaffolding is being reared up to the ceiling, in preparation for the structural repairs found, on exploration, to -be necessary, as the result of the severe wrenching the northern half of the building received in the earthquake of August 2. The extent of this damage ’cannot be definitely known till the cracked piers are examined, and sections of the walls are opened up. No one can say exactly how long repairs will take, but it is certain to run well into next year. Rates and licence fees may still be paid at the usual office at the southern end of the ground floor corridor, and the city treasurer, Mr. B. O. Peterson, who is also treasurer of the Metropolitan Patriotic and other funds, is still in receipt of custom in his usual quarters in the southern wing. Those civic officials who have vacated the Town Hall for the central library are the town clerk, the city solicitor, the city valuer, and the director of parks, with their respective staffs.