"WHAT O'CLOCK?"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 94, 7 May 1937, Page 48 (Supplement)

"WHAT O'CLOCK?"

Hastings Chimes Have History Of Their Own The cloek chime$ which peal fromihe graceful tower standing at the corner of Heretaunga street and Railway. road have a history . of their own. Until 1909 no clock proclaimed the passing hours to the business people of Hastings To Iearn the official time it was necessary to visit the old Post -Office which then qceupied the eite on whieh now stands the modern building erected after the earthquake. Here a small cloek could be viewed from the street. About the end of 1908 this old building was moved a short distance down Queen street and continued to serve as the Post Office until a 4new building was erected. This old building still femains and has Mr. F. C. Wilkinson, land and commission agent, the A.M.P. Life Assuranee Agency, and several other firms as tenants. On January 26, 1909, Sir Joseph Ward, who was then Prime Minister, laid the foundation stone of the new Post Office which was to stand until the earthquake of 1931. At the time of the ceremony Sir Joseph announced that the Government would subsidise £1 for £l money raised for a 'cloek to occupy the space provided for it in the tower. 3ome months later, prompted by a donation of £1 1/- from the staff of the telephone exchange, whose meinbera were keenly aware of the need for a town clock by the frequent telephone inquiries for time, the Hastings Standard opened a subscription list nnd appealed to the pujflic to find the necessary- sum. Among those who.contributed freely were several Chinese fruit and vegetable retailers and market gardeners living in'the botougli. In due course sufficient was raised to purehase and install the clock. The late Mr. E. H. Williams, who was then borough solieitor, later generously donated the sum of ^£350 for the purehase of a set of chimes and Hastings people had a clock by which they not only could view the time from a distance, but also could hear the quarter-hours melodiously proclaimed. A severe earthquake about 1911, that oc'curred about ten mihutes to eight in the evening, so rattled the mechanism that ihe timepiece stopped. A few minutes later the hour bell began to chime and struck more than a hundred notes before it ran down. Twenty years later this "unheeded warning that Nature could take toll of architeeture that did not respect her moods was brought to tragic realisatiou. In the disaster of February, 1931, tho clock tower erashed, iujuring several persons and kilhng Mr. A. L. Ryan, of the staff of the Hawke's Bay Tribune. Amid the ruins lay the mechanism of the clock and the bells. These were salvaged and stored by the Borough Council. Lust year they resumed their useful activity in a new setting. I'o-day the cloek-tower standa as * hatidsome civic centrepiece and its chimes echo somothing of the personal endeavour and citizenship that lie behind the building of Hastings.