A CITY SAFE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4553, 23 October 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

A CITY SAFE.

.(From the dtp Press.) One of the most remarkable buildings ever completed, or even conjectured, was opened a few days since. The solid-looking building standing on the triangular piece of ground on the west of the Mansion House, that for so long was hemmed in with a high boarding covered with gaily-colored posters, is now opened as a gigantic safe, where much of the vast wealth of the city will doubtless be deposited. To the visitor who is conducted through the subterranean passages and alleys underneath that triangular building, and to whom is explained the intricate ramifications and extreme solidity of the structure, it ceases to he a wonder that the building has been some time befora completion, but the wonder seems how it was possible to complete it at •all. The National Safe Deposit Company at present will only occupy the ground-floor and the series of vaults underneath, the upper floors being entirely distinct and intended to be let as offices. The building stands on an estimated area of 6500 superficial feet. Excavations to the extent of 50ft. in depth were made, and a solid wall, three feet in thickness, composed of hard blue Staffordshire brick, with an interior coating of fire-bricks, lined with 4-iuoh armour-plating, enclosing the safe. ■Within this 50ft. excavation were built four floors, with inner dividing walls of two feet in thickness, composed of brick, similarly lined with iron. Under the vaults is a reservoir with seven feet of water, which can be utilised in case of fire by means of hydraulic machinery, and, if necessary, sent up in a flood to a gigantic tank on the top of the building. We shall probably give our readers a better idea of the building and its marvels if we ask tbem to accompany us, and enter at the main entrance facing the Mansion House. We see several private offices for the officials on our right, and notice that the manager’s private office is doubly guarded by extra doors, &c., the particulars of which we shall explain presently. On the left also are a a series of compartments, but in the centre is the one for the entrance of the depositors cithern accredited servants to the safe below. Upon satisfactory evidence that the right man is about his proper work, the turnstile is unlocked, and we are conducted by an official of the company to our own compartment of this gigantic safe. We descend a broad circular staircase, and by the dim light through the gratings, and the necessary additional light of gas, we know that we are already underground. Here are a number of small compartments fitted up as desks and boxed in, so that after we have proceeded to our own portion of the safe, we may have leisure to examine or detach portion of our treasure. Through an aperture in the three-feet wall we emerge into a passage or gallery, where we perceive lights with reflectors at stated distances. Opposite these lights arc iron-barred

dcors, through which the reflected lights shine, and discover numberless “ safes” of various dimensions in alleys, all of which safes arc numbered and closed, ranging on either side. There are eight of these “strong-rooms” on each side of the four floors, with corresponding private offices for the use of the depositors. All the safes are about two feet in depth, and contain iron trays for the convenience of removing papers, jewels, &o. They vary in size from about six inches to two feet square, and vary in price per annum from 50s. to £3O. There are 672 safes of various sizes in each strong-room ; and there are, as before stated, eight strong-rooms on each floor. Each safe is provided with distinct keys, different from all the other keys. The safes are all of Milner’s manufacture, and each safe is divided by iron partitions. No one is permitted to open a safe under any pretence, except in the presence of an officer of the company. At night each of these rooms is secured by 12-inch steel doors weighing four tons each. These are moved by hydraulic pressure into grooves, and have a constant pressure on them of 160 tons, and the passages are patrolled night and day by watchmen formidably armed. It is said that these doors have been tested by the most skilled experts in mechanics, hut they retired from the contest discomfited. It is impossible to open them except by a similar process to that which closed them. At present, the second floor is the only one completely fitted. The under vaults are open for all kinds of valuable property. On the lower floor without the building are the various engines which keep the atmosphere wholesome by pumping out the vitiated and pumping in the fresh air, and also to send up a volume of water at a minute’s notice. All the machinery is in duplicate, in case of any mishap, and it seems to us, so far as human ingenuity and endeavor can possibly lead men to secure security, it has been accomplished in this case. It might he thought that, although all this care and skill has been expended in defying burglars and fire, there has been no thought of the possible treachery within doors. Even this has been thought of, and to a certain extent, prevented. In the manager’s room is a piece of machinery which can either close or open the ponderous doors where the treasures are to he stowed. Without a certain key, applied to this simple bit of mechanism, nothing short of a Prussian army could open those tight-fitting, obstinate doors leading to the strong-room. The engineer cannot effectively set his steam to work without the given consent of the manager or his accredited agent. Throughout it appears that the greatest pains have been taken to ensure “ security,” from whatever source attack might possibly come. Doubtless the freeholders of that triangular portion of city laud know full well that they possess, for its area, the most valuable little slice that there is in the world, the rental being estimated at £15,000, exclusive of rates and taxes. It is hot beyond conjecture that within that 6500 superficial feet of city land there will be treasures to an amount that an empire could not purchase.