COLOSSAL COLUMNS

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1928, Page 7

COLOSSAL COLUMNS

NEW SAVINGS BANK IN SYDNEY. SYDNEY, Sept. 20. Before long the State Savings Bank will be shifting into its palatial new quarters, facing Castlereagh and Elizabeth streets. Sydney is so used nowdays to seeing skyscrapers shooting up in all directions that it views with a certain amount of nonchalance the giant and magnificent Savings Bank, although that great structure still attracts the passing gaze of a few “rubbernecks,” visitors for the most part. The majestic columns of the new bank are the striking features of it. It is because of their immense proportions, to the lay eye, that these columns are perhaps unique. To the critical architestural eye, however, they have a special appeal. With a girth of 24 feet, and a length of more than 70 feet, these massive, noble shafts bear witness to the art of the ancient Greeks. Had these columns been solid their weight Would have been approximately 200 tons each. The fact that they are hollow has permitted of a number of small strongrooms being built within the massive shafts on different floors. In this respect, they do not differ from other oldworici monumental columns, with their inferior winding staircases, for example. The columns of the Savings Bank are only of slightly smaller length than the Antoninc column in Rome. Nobody seems to know exactly what the Savings Bank is going to cost. It will be a huge sum, whatever it is.