Our New Buildings.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 116, 24 April 1883, Page 2

Our New Buildings.

bTEVENS AND GORTON'S AUCTION EOOM. This very substantial' structure has been taken over from the contractors, and has been finished m very complete style, every requisite and convenience biinsr first-class of its kind. The building has a very handsome front elevation, facing Rangitikei Street, and comprises two floors. Entering by folding doors, and passing through the portico, we find ourselves m the public offic», which is roomy and comfortable, having chairs, forms, and a fire-place. Across the counter is the inside office, and furthei m still the private office, which is secluded by curtains on brass rods, and is nicely fitted with all necessary furnishings. We pass through to the back store on the ground floor, which is the temporary receptacle for the large shipments of grain and seed which the firm periodically imports from other districts, and where bnyers can sample from the stock on hand. We saw there as fine samples of feed oats as could be produced, — m fact we never saw better. The second floor is reached by a set of steps, easy of access, and wide, specially. so for the manual conveyance of bags of grain or seed. ! The principal part of the raising is done by the elevator, worked by an endless Tope provided with powerful break, and is so constructed that a man can easily raise a weight of half a ton, or lower | the same without assistance. Some large consignments of seed from the South were recently received, weighed, marked, raised, and packed up on the second flo ir m an astonishingly short ! period of time m comparison to the number of hands employed . The floor 1 is very closely joiated, being made to support a great weight, which indeed it has already carried. Out of some 900 bags of grass seed lately imported, less than a dozen were left unsold on the day of our visit, dp-stairs there was a i delightful fragrance arising from some pockets of new season's hops, consigned ; by the growprs, Messrs Whibley Bros., of Ashurst, and which are a beauti- : fa? yam pie, and tend to show what the soil of Manawatu is capable of producing. All around are the evidences of the agricultural and pastoral progress of the district, and we should say that before long, with wool, grain, grassseed, clovers, hops, &c. &c, the present extensive accommodation will ba found insufficient for loc*l requirements. We congratulate the firm oh their enterprise m adding such a creditable and substantial structure to the existing business houses of Palmeraton. In m - curting such a heavy expense m extend* I dint? their business m this direction, we I predict a liberal return m the immediata 'future.: The contractors were Messrs Smith and Marsh, and the work was carried out under* the supervision of Mr Larcomb, who, also prepared plans and specifications.