OLD LANDMARKS GO

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 252, 14 January 1928, Page 1

OLD LANDMARKS GO

TWO CHIMNEYS AT HOBSON STREET POWER STATION BECOME UNSAFE NOW BEING DEMOLISHED Two old landmarks, the twin chimney stacks towering above the power station in Hobson Street, have become unsafe, and are being demolished. These relics from the days when the defunct tramway company owned the undertaking, and developed their electric current with a steam plant, have been a feature of the Auckland skyline as long as most citizens remember, and are even shown on ,a great number of the nautical charts in connection with navigation in the harbour. Their useful life ceased some time ago, when the steam plant became obsolete and inefficient. Now they are an expense to maintain, and in addition are becoming unsafe, so that the Auckland Power Board, to which they belong, has commenced to dismantle them both. This is also providing work for a number of men. The stacks are as alike as the proverbial two peas. They stand over 120 feet high, and the diameter is 14 feet at the base and six feet at the top. Both are built in brick, with an outside casing of steel plates. They .will be reduced six feet at si time, the inside brickwork first being broken up and dropped down the inside, and the steel rings being burnt off with an acetone flame, and lowered from the outside as each six feet is cleared of bricks. The work, which is not without an element of danger, will continue for at least two or three months.