The process will be an undoubted benefit when it is finished, but in the meantime the result is somewhat inconvenient, for the Post Office clock, a timepiece with a fine reputation for regularity, which sets the time for all Christchurch, including the trains, has developed irregularities.
Last night and this morning it was about 15 minutes fast, and the scenes in the Square this morning were decidedly funny.
When the Post Office chimes began to strike 8 some 10 or 15 minutes before the proper time a sort of electrical effect was noticeable in the Square.
The New Zealand working man took his hands out of his pockets, removed his pipe, threw his head back, and sprinted openly and unashamed for the place of his employment.
Pert factory girls let their conversations fall to pieces with the strokes of the chimes, and put on as much pace as their skirts and their dignity permitted.
Everybody wore a worried look.
The striking of 9 o'clock brought along a repetition of the hurrying scenes.
The shop girls fairly bolted when the chimes fell on their ears, and the business man held his hat on with one hand and his handbag free with the other while he sprinted for office and work.
It is a bad thing to be five minutes late at the office in the morning - specially on Monday morning.
What they all said when they found that their hurry and alarm had been unnecessary must be left to the imagination.
The City Council has not yet accepted the synchronisation of the clocks as a completed contract, and in the meantime the contractors are taking steps to overcome the difficulties which beset the task.
• The extension of the Lawrence railway line to the foot of the Big Hill, representing the first section of the Lawrence-Roxburgh railway, will be opened for traffic for the first time today.
The train will leave Lawrence, after the arrival of the 11.55am train from Dunedin, at 12.20 arriving at Big Hill at 1 o'clock.
Departure from Big Hill will be made at 1.15pm, Lawrence being reached at 1.55pm.
The same time-table will be observed from this time forward on Tuesdays and Fridays. - ODT, 4.10.1910.
