THE NEW GENERAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES AT WELLINGTON.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 546, 18 March 1876, Page 3

THE NEW GENERAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES AT WELLINGTON.

(JV, Z. limes.') As the enormous pile of buildings is fast approaching completion, a short description of them should be interesting to the public of New Zealand, from the circumstances that ere long the whole of the public departments will be removed there, and the public having Government business to transact will know exactly where to go instead of, as at present, having to search the city through which the departments are scattered, and often losing valuable time before their object of search is attained. The buildings stand on a site of about two acres, provided by the Provincial Government of Wellington, but which has been reclaimed from the harbor by the General Government. The site is nearly opposite Government House, and will be entirely surrounded by streets, the chief front being towards Lambton quay, which is at this point 100 feet wide. The total length of the building measures 255 feet by a depth of 130 feet in the wings, and may be said to have four fronts, there being altogether seven public entrances, each approached by a flight of ten steps under Boman-Doric porticoes, thus raising the ground floor five feet above the surface of the Bite. The elevations are Italian, plain in design, with projecting eaves and modillions. The ground story is rusticated, with semicircular arches springing from pilasters with moulded caps, and having moulded architraves and key-stones, surmounted by a moulded stringcourse, on which the first floor windows stand. The windows of this storey are relieved with carved trusses supporting moulded pediments. Above those pediments js another moulded string course, on which the second floor windows stand, and which correspond in design with those of the first floor, excepting that moulded labels are substituted for the pediments. The third floor windows are somewhat smaller, and furnished wth moulded architraves, also standing on a moulded stringcourse, but which is broken and mitred to form sills to the windows, with cantilevers under (two to each window"). There is a moulded necking above the third floor windows, immediately under the modillions before referred to. The main entrance is surmounted with a pediment, moulded to match, and is mitred with the roof cornice, on the apex of which will be placed the Royal arms. The centre of the pediment will contain an illuminated clock, relieved on either bide by a recessed and moulded panel. The return front of each wing has the eaves line broken by a distinct pediment, standing up clear of the eaves, with modillions as before described, and finished with a carved vase. There are twenty-two chimney stacks with moulded bases and modillioa cornices, having champered angles, and divisions sunk triangularly to mark the flues, which number 193. •The ground floor, north wing, is arranged with eight rooms for the Treasury department, varying in size from 18ft x 16ft to 40ft x 16ft, The centre between the wings has seven rooms for the Customs and Marine north of the central hall, varying from 16ft X 15ft 6in to 26ft 3in x 16ft. One room east of the main entrance is set apart for the telegraph operator. The main entrance hall is 20ft square, having plate glass swing doors between it and an outer lobby on the east and the main corridor on the west, which is 255 ft long and 10ft wide. Off the lobby to entrance hall and south of it is a porters’ or messengers’ room, and a second messengers’ room is provided opposite to the entrance hall, east of the main corridor and adjoining the telegraph operator’s room. Still proceeding south, there are three rooms for the stamp and three for the immigration departments, being on the west and east sides of the main corridor. These rooms vary from 16ft x 15ft 6in to 26ft Sin x 16ft. At both ends of the central portion of the main corridor are passages leading on to open verandahs, which form approaches to lifts and other conveniences, each having a flight of steps giving access to the courtyard in the rear. The south wing is. now reached. The western portion is thus appropriated, three rooms for the colonial architect, and two for public works, ranging from 18ft x 16ft to 2lft 4in x 16ft ; while the east end is to be occupied by the Native department, there being five rooms similar in dimensions to those in the western end of this wing. At the intersection of the wings with the the central portion of the building the staircases and fireproof safes are arranged, which extend through the four stories. The former are each 32ft square, having an independent flight of steps Bft long, and branch flights of 6ft steps, one to the main and the other to the cross or wing corridor. The safes are lift square in the clear, but divided by an iron railing, thus making each into two 1 fft x Bft 6in. This arrangement is also carried out on every floor, and each of the e mailer safes is supplied with a Milner’s fire-pi oof door, while each pair of safes has a window with double iron shutters, one inside and the other on the outside of the brick w»11b, which are 2ft 3in thick, sll built

in cement. The safes are lined with studding and plaster, having an air passage between the brickwork and the lining, with the view of preventing damp striking the papers to be stored in them. All the rooms are plastered, and over the plaster for about 4ft in height is a dado of kauri timber, and Tobin’s ventilators are applied throughout every room. At every public entrance lobbies are formed in the corridors by the introduction of plate glass swing doors. This description of the ground floor has a general application to the other .three floors, and it will suffice to give the appropriation of the rooms on those floors to the several departments. The first floor is thus arranged: North wing has eight rooms, similar in size to those on the ground floor, appropriated to audit, being immediately over the Treasury department. The centre portion between the wings, being 165 ft 6in length, is appropriated on the west, or Lambton quay side, to the Ministers (six in number), with a Cabinet room 32ft x 20ft, in the middle and over the entrance hall flanked by two lavatories. The eastern side of the main corridor provides rooms for messengers, waiting room, secretary to Premier, secretary to Cabinet, Under-Secretary, Assistant Under-Secretary, and two rooms for Colonial Secretary’s clerks. The south wing (first floor) has 12 rooms, appropriated entirely to public works, the sizes, as ton the ground floor, ranging from 18ft x 10ft to 40ft x 16ft. The second floor, north wing, provides ten rooms for the annuities, inspector of stores, and public trustee, which departments are all more or less connected with the treasury and audit departments, and are therefore arranged over them. The centre portion between the wings on this flat has six rooms for the General Postoffice, two for Native Lands Judges, one for messengers, three for Commissioners of Native Lands, and five for the exhibition of patents, the smallest being 15ft x 10ft 6in, and the largest 30ft x 20ft. The south wing of the second floor provides the rooms, all intended for the Public Works department, and range from 18ft x 16ft to 40fb x Ifift, The third floor, north wing, provides five rooms for the law officers at the west end, and five for the Registrar-General on the east end. The central portion between the wings has seven rooms for the Inspector of Surveys, two for the Inspector of Asylums, one for messengers, three for education, and four for Grown lands. The south wing of the third floor provides four rooms for the Telegraph department, two for Public Works, and two spare looms for visiting Government officers. To sum up, it will be seen that this enormous building contains 143 rooms ; four corridors, each 255 ft x 10ft, and eight corridors 130fb x 10ft ; sixty-four conveniences, two lifts, six verandahs, seven porticoes, and eighteen' flights of stairs, each occupying a space 32ft square. The building is erected of wood, the foundations being of totara piles, driven through the made ground to the solid rock foundation, the framing throughout is of Tasmanian hardwood, and the rustic weatherboards, which are 1 4-in thick, are of kauri, as also are the floors and joiners’ work generally. The roof is covered with corrugated galvanised iron, and the interior is plastered throughout, excepting the main entrance hall and lobby, which are lined with fancy New Zealand woods. The lead, roof iron, paint, felt, glass, mantels, &c , were imported from England specially for the building. The contractors for the erection and part of the materials were Messrs Secular and Archibald ; for the kauri timber, Messrs Greenfield and Stewart, and for the Tasmanian timber, Messrs Beck and Tonks ; and the whole has been carried out in the best possible manner, Those who live in -Wellington must have noticed the rapidity with which the work has been executed, and considering that it is the largest wooden building in the world write under correction), it must be considered creditable to Wellington that we have cbntractors capable of such an undertaking, to say nothing of the short time the work has been done in. The designs and specifications were prepared by the Colonial Architect, who proposes as a finishing touch to enclose the site with a light ornamental iron railing, and to plant with ornamental shrubs the whole of the space between the boundaries and the building. Accident by fire has been provided against as, independently of fire-plugs round the exterior of the building, two small fire-plugs with hose will be always • charged on each flat of the building, at the top of the staircases. The total cost of the works, if carried to proper completion, will be about £48,000, The only regret is that they should have been built of timber, but on the other hand, the timbers selected are of the least inflammable description, and the work is well done.