THE SCENE CHANGES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 9

THE SCENE CHANGES

Old Finn’s New Quarters

LINK WITH EARLY AUCKLAND

The uninterrupted traditions of close on a century will be broken on Monday when the firm of L. JD. Nathan and Co. opens in its lofty nciv building in Fort Street. For 87 years the concern's headquarters have been located in Shortland (Street on a section that has seen its business—and Auckland’s—expand incredibly. But the stern demands of progress have at last decreed a move from the ancient site, and next week the former main office will be tenantless.

From a building that was mellowed by association with the spirit of pioneer commercialism, and about whose walls lingers the flavour of mercantile adventure, the staff of an organisation that is notable beyond the borders of the Dominion moves into a great edifice —a structure fully signifying Auckland’s advancement, a place of spacious bulk stores, richly panelled offices, and the most modern principles in warehouse construction. To transfer the goods and properties’ of so vast a concern and maintain touch with business interests while the change is being effected, is a task monumental in the difficulties it involves. Only thorough organisation could have accomplished it successfully'.

Company, the firm is retaining the lofty adjoining warehouse in High Street, but this, too, may be placed on the market. Its foundations wer.e not laid until 1909, but it has watched a fair measure of the firm’s progress. When built it was Auckland’s tallest building, and three * years later two extra floors raised it to the maximum height permitted under the building regulations. Two fires have occurred in that building, one of them, in 1917, being of spectacular and disastrous character, though the flames raged only within the two top floors. These were not the only fires in the firm’s history. In 1904 a large fivestorey bond store and tea \Varehouse in Customs Street was burned to the ground in one of Auckland’s worst

When the first land sale was held in Auckland in 1841, the late Mr. David Nathan acquired the Shortland Street section on which stands the new vacated building, and the year before, while the survey was proceeding, lie had established his business in Auckland, and its advancement was so rapid that only 12 years later he erected the brick building occupied by the office staff until last Friday. Outwardly, as the years marched by, its appearance had been changed by coats of cement and minor alterations, but the timber put in when it was built is still sound, and the original bricks —imported from England before the local industry got going—are still rigid in its‘sturdy walls. In a corner room of the timber structure replaced by the first brick warehouse was born the present head of the firm, Mr. N. Alfred Nathan, whose sentimental associations, not unnaturally, 'are wrenched by departure from the site which has seen four generations of his family in possession. While the original section has been sold to the South British Insurance

fires. From the ashes rose the existing bond store, a substantial pile. The history of L. D. Nathan Co., Ltd., is parallel to the history of Auckland city. When the interests of the North were concentrated at lonely, but lovely, Kororareka, there David Nathan opened a business in 1836, and in 1840, when New Zealand was formally annexed by New South Wales, and Auckland became the capital of the colony, he transferred his business to the head of, government. Shortland Street was then a waterfront thoroughfare, and from the windows of David Nathan’s first residence and warehouse could be watched the play of colour on the Waitemata and Rangitoto. Early portraits reveal in the founder’s features the character and personality which made him a popular and successful business man, and beside one of those portraits the ivory gravel with which he conducted many of Auckland’s first auction sales is still carefully preserved. Associated

with him were prominent figures in Auckland’s early history, and the builder of the brick warehouse in Shortland Street was “Sandy” Watson, a pioneer contractor. Later the founder’s two sons,. Messrs. L. D. and N. A. Nathan, became associated with the firm, which retains the founder’s name, although he died some years ago. It is singular, and perhaps appropriate, that the new headquarters of the historic concern are built on the site i of Auckland’s first customhouse, which stood on the foreshore, tucked beneath • the tide-washed beach in front of a steep bank at the rear. Thus, though leaving the venerable building and the original Shortland Street lot, the firm ; relinquishes little of its first-hand association with early mercantile history.