NEW COURTHOUSE.

Matamata Record, Volume VI, Issue 493, 29 November 1923, Page 2

NEW COURTHOUSE.

PLANS PREPARED. No Library Provided. Apparently the Post and Telegraph and Justice Departments have abandoned the idea of combining in the erection of a Courthouse and post office, for plans and specifications have beeu drawn up for the Courthouse alone and tenders will shortly be called. The plans provide for a wooden building of both useful and ornamental design, which is to be built on a site on the Meura street side of the police station at the corner of Tui street. The entrance will be from the latter street through a front porch 71ft by 7 ft. From thence a passage 4ft in width runs to the hack of the building. On the right-hand side, facing Meura street, is a witnesses’ waitingroom lOaft by Jtt, alongside of which is the main office, 10’.ft by 10ft. This room, which will also serve as the sanctum of the clerk, is fitted with a wide counter and will have every facility for the transaction of public business. Immediately behind this again is the magistrate’s private room, IOMt by oft. This apartment is on the northeast corner of the building and has a very sunnv aspect. To the west of this and at the end of the passage is a back porch, 7ft by 4ft, fitted with a porcelain wash hand basin. Occupying the whole of the western side of the building, with three windows facing towards Tainui street and two looking on to Tui street, w‘the Courtroom* a capacious chambei 28Jft long by 17ft broad. At the northern end is the-raised platform known as the Bench, on which the magistrates or justices sit, and immediately below is a rostrum for the Clerk of the Court. A long wide table extends from here down the centre of the room and at the southern end is a witness’ box and prisoners dock, both fitted on castors and movable, lhe rest of the Courtroom, namely, the south-west comer, is* the auditorium, or part set aside for the public. With regard to the material employed in the construction of the building, it is specified to bo strictly heart of totara on eight by eight studs and lined with plaster and internal roofing of asbestos, while the edifice is to be roofed externally with the best Marseilles tiles. The building.is t o be illuminated with the electric light and the heating is also to be electrical, three hot points being installed. Apart from this there is a large brick fireplace, .suitable foi burning coal and wood, m the Courtroom. The natural lighting is provided for by eight windows, two in the front and three at each side. Along the front of the building, facing Tui street and continued round the corner to a point in Meura street in line with the front of the building, is a high concrete lcerbcd wall and the balance of. the. Meura street frontage is to he faced with a 4ft picket fence. There will be two gateways in the wall referred to, the main one Bft wide and the other 4ft. There are to lie 4ft footpaths in front of and round the building and these are to be covered with shingle 4m thick. Theie are of course the usqal outhouses appropriate to a building of the sort. The whole structure, which is of most attractive anpeavance, is to be hnished about Easter, tenders closing on the 11th of next month. The one drawback to the proposed building is the absence of provision for a library, a most essential part of a Courthouse.