A Modern Station Building.

The remaining item, and one that must make the greatest appeal, not only to the citizens of Auckland, but to the travelling public generally, is the erection of a modern station building.

The traveller takes but little cognisance of that labyrinth of steel tracks which forms the vast and intricate transportation machine known as a railway yard. His interests lean more towards convenience and creature comfort, and these he will find in Auckland's fine new station.

No pains have been spared in providing Auckland with a station building in full keeping with her pride and prestige, both now and in the future when she has achieved her manifest destiny.

The building as it now stands embodies a recognition not only of the status of Auckland as a city, but of the importance of our national railways in the life of the page 27 community. The railway stations at Wellington and Auckland must be regarded as gateways to our country, gateways through which not only our own people pass, but at which visitors from overseas must be received and impressed with our national status, our civic pride and our sense of service.

The outstanding feature of the new Auckland Station building is that it is built of the simplest materials, steel, concrete, brick, timber, granite and marble. These have been so disposed by the art of the architect and the skill of the craftsman that a structure of great beauty and durability is available. Auckland may well have a deep local pride in the building. The architects whose master minds shaped the structure were born and bred within her gates. The builders and artisans are also of her citizens, and have reared an enduring monument to honest service and skilful craftsmanship.

The building materials, too, have been drawn largely from the Auckland Province—granite from Coromandel, marble from Whangarei, bricks from New Lynn, cement from Portland, shingle and broken metal from neighbouring bays and quarries, roofing tiles from Taumarunui, and timber from her forests. The comparatively small proportion of imported materials are of the best British manufacture.

We see but part of the structure as it stands to-day. Hidden beneath the building, the retaining walls and the verandahs, and reaching down through the silt to solid rock, is a vast forest of concrete piles up to 70ft. in length.

Provision has been made in the upper floors of the building for housing in commodious offices, the Divisional and District staffs of the Railway Department.