POST OFFICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1942, Page 2

POST OFFICE

RENOVATION OF DAMAGED BUILDING CAN CLOCK BE RESTORED? USE OF TIMEPIECE ONLY SUGGESTED. After a more or less gruelling time of inconvenience, following the earthquake of a month ago, the staff of the Masterton Post Office is now settling down again to normal business. In the period immediately following the earthquake, the staff worked under certain difficulties, but gradually disorderly collections of rubble have been cleared away and a more serene atmosphere now prevails.

The removal of the tower has enabled the main entrance to be brought into use once more. The temporary entrance on the Lincoln Road side of the building has proved a great convenience to the public, as it makes the posting boxes a much more directly accessable to persons conducting postal business, than was the case previously. The opinion has been expressed that this entrance should remain in use. With the Lincoln Road door open, members of the staff find the office rather cold and draughty in these wintry days, but it is considered that there might be means of overcoming that trouble.

The public generally, it appears, greatly regret the loss of the Post Office clock, especially coming as it has, at a time when clocks, owing to war conditions, cannot be procured. Inquiries are being made as to whether it would be practicable to replace the clock by eliminating the chimes and gong and operating the time movement only. It is understood that it would be possible to fit two of the dials in the wooden faces on the Post Office building, over the main entrance. This arrangement, it is felt, would be appreciated by the public. The loss of the tower would necessitate the clock being wound up once every three days, instead of once every eight days,. as was formerly the case. The question of access to the clock for this purpose should not present any great difficulty. It is probable that the matter will be considered by the Masterton Borough Council at an early date. The clock is borough property and if it is decided to instal it again, no doubt the necessary permission would be forthcoming from the P. and T. Department. The flagpole which formerly surmounted the Post Office tower is once more in position on the shortened structure and it is hoped in a day or two to have the ball in use again, indicating the progress of Masterton's National Savings Campaign. In about ten days’ time the Postmaster and his clerical staff, including the oil fuel, food control and radio sections, will move into new quarters upstairs. This change is part of the reorganisation scheme which was in hand when the earthquake occurred. In conjunction with earthquake restoration work, the alterations which were commenced before the earthquake have been proceeding steadily ever since the upheaval. Evidence of this scheme is given by the enlarged accommodation for the public in the Savings Bank and Money Order section and direct access now provided from that branch to the postal department. Reorganisation in certain other directions is meantime held up, pending a decision as to the ultimate fate of the building as a whole—that is, whether it will have to be demolished to make room for a modern reinforced concrete structure or whether it will be possible to repair the existing building.