Motueka gets a modern post office

Robyn Parkes

Postal services in Motueka go as far back as 1865 with Mr J. McDonald in charge.
Following him was Simon Buchholz, who ran a post office facility from his store from August 1869 to July 1872.

In the 1870’s a small departmental building was built, and Mr C. Nicholas became the first permanent postmaster at Motueka.

With the rapid growth of the district, a new post office was needed to meet the expanding postal and telegraphic needs of the community. A new and much larger post office was built in 1901 but destroyed by fire in August 1938. Following the fire, the post office services moved into temporary premises.

With a rebuild needed, tenders were called for in early March 1941 with an assurance by the Postmaster General that there would be no avoidable delay in organising the contract and starting the work. In June it was revealed that Messrs F. Williamson of Christchurch had won the tendering process, and that work would begin within three weeks.

The building of the new post office began on 10 July 1941, but owing to the war and the diverting of men to essential military construction work the building was halted. With no movement by December 1942, a letter was written to the Postmaster General regarding the long delay and requesting an assurance of a resumption of work. In January the following year news came that the work on the building would recommence.

By the end of August 1943, the new post office on the corner of High and Greenwood St was completed and scheduled to be opened on the 4th of September by the Hon. P. C. Webb, Postmaster-General, who was flying down from Wellington the same day. However, the weather was bad and the flight was cancelled.   Plans were quickly made to enable Webb to perform the opening by radio, broadcast by station 2YC Wellington, and transmitted over the public address system provided on the platform in front of the office.

The post office building was constructed of ferro-concrete with dimensions of 54ft by 90ft. The lobby, with its terrazzo-finished floor and walls, created quite an impression as one entered the building. Posting boxes, stamp vending machine and a public telephone were in the lobby.   At the right was a private box lobby containing 60 boxes with provision for installing two additional sets of 60 boxes if required.

The postmaster’s room was at the eastern end of the public space and adjoining this room was a clerical office for general clerical work and oil fuel enquiries.
In the mail room of around 1500 square feet, provision was made for the sorting and dispatching of mails at the western end, while the rural delivery and postmen’s section occupied the remaining portion of the room.

A telegraph operating room provided room for all future requirements, and a test board of the latest cordless type was installed.

The strong room measured 15ft by 9ft. The first floor held the telephone exchange, the main distributing frame for the telephone system, a battery room for the housing of secondary batteries when the need arose for the installation of a multiple or automatic system and a social room and cloakrooms. Finally, after a long wait, the community had its new post office and staff were able to move out of the temporary building.