Breaking the Ties

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 17, 11 April 1927, Page 11

Breaking the Ties

Mr Alf. Regret Firm’s New Building OPENING CEREMONY To-day one of the oldest of Auckland’s business houses enters into the outward show of its progress, a tall .white building in Fort Street.

To-day, the man who has watched this come to pass, Mr. N. Alfred Nathan, tears up his seventy - seven years of association with the old site in Shortland Street, where he was born and where his office chair has been, almost ever since. Even the pride of achievement cannot dispel the regret at leaving the common but intimate things of one’s life to full into unknowing hands. The parting from the old premises, which must hold his finest efforts, the best part of his life is felt acutely by Mr. Nathan. “It is a wrench," he said simply, and then he let his memory unwrap a little of its store. “ That quarter-acre section on Shortland Street seems to have held me for 77 years," he said. “Here, perhaps, on the very spot where my office ohair has stood year in and year out, was my cradle. My earliest recollection is looking out of the windows—our nursery

was upstairs—and seeing the Maoris grounding their canoes an the beach just across the road. They came to barter with kits of kumara and fish and melons and all they asked for them was ‘ leky penny.’ “ My father had come down from the Bay of Islands when Governor Hobson arrived from Australia, and New Zealand was declared a Crown Colony. Either Dr. Campbell or my father bought the first section put up for sale by public auction here. And the business began in 1841. I remember that where the bond store is now there was an open yard and at the side the cottages of the carriers. My first job as a boy was to keep tally of loads, and in a slack time many a tempting meal of Irish stew I had in one of the cottages. There was a very deep well nearby, and the warnings I received to keep away from it are still with me.

“ The first wooden building had begun to be replaced by a structure of bricks imported from England in the early ’so’s. There was the grand occasion of the opening of the Shortland Street building, which we are just leaving,” Mr. Nathan said. “It was in 1858, just before I went to school in England. My father gave an opening function, as was the custom, and a dance in the evening. The 58th Regiment, then in charge of Colonel Wynyard, was quartered in the town. When we returned in 1866, it was the first time I saw the late Sir Henry Brett. He was then a shipping reporter on the “ Herald," and he brought out to our ship fresh bread and butter. The joy of receiving this after a long ocean journey I can feel now." In a room in the store for bulk goods his father had held his synagogue. To make way for the new building in Fort Street it had been necessary to pull down an ancient landmark, Grahame’s bond. Mr. Nathan remembers that, when there were no wharves, the ships used to unload into barges which brought the merchandise to the store.

The growth of the business and that of Auckland had been responsible for the firm’s shift. Values in Shortland Street had risen greatly, and the company had decided that the area was too highly-priced to hold a warehouse. Therefore the section had been sold to the South British Insurance Company for £BOO a foot. That firm intended to build an eight-storey building on the site, and Mr. Nathan had stipulated that when the old building was demolished he should have the safe from his father’s old room as a memento.

WITH A GOLDEN KEY With a golden master key, the chairman of directors of L. D. Nathan and Co., Mr. N. Alfred Nathan opened the front door of the new seven-storey building in Fort Street to-day. He was met outside by the directors and managers of departments. These were Mr. DavM L. Nathan, vice-chairman, Mr. H. W. Hudson, managing director. Captain H. W. Hewitt, secretary and director, and Messrs. W. W. Warnock, manager, wine and spirit department, Thomas Fraser, manager, grocery department. S. A. Norris, manager, fancy goods department, J. Allan, tea expert, E. H. King, shipping department W. If. Nicolls, despatch manager, and P. J. Capper assistant secretary. Messrs. Hudson and Warnock are two of tlie oldest employees of the firm, the former having been in it for 43 years and the latter for 30. After the opening Mr. Alfred Nathan addressed the whole of the employees, numbering 150. The golden key bore on one side the intersecting triangles once the seal of King David and now the crest of the firm, which has always had a David as one of its principals. On the other it was inscribed. “Presented by the staff of la. D. Nathan and Co. to commemorate the opening of the new premises."

Seven storeys high, the new warehouse is a structure in which all that modern architecture and designing can give has been incorporated in the building. It is splendidly furnished, mostly in oak. and it would be difficult to imagine better working conditions for the staffs of the many departments.

In 1917 the firm started a superannuation scheme by which half the profits were set aside for that purpose. Now 100 of the staff of 150 have been employed for more than three years and they are qualified to share in the scheme.