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"Clock tower, The Square after construction"

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Image

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Description: The clock in the Clock Tower, named Kerei Te Panau after a local Rangitane chieftain, was originally housed in the Chief Post Office of Palmerston North. Due to safety concerns both the tower and clock were removed from the Post Office after the 1942 Wairarapa earthquake, and the clock placed in storage. In 1953 Arthur Hopwood gifted the city of Palmerston North £10,000 to build a new tower in The Square to hold the clock and chimes. It was completed in 1957. The Clock Tower has experienced a number of changes including the removal of the original sound shell at the base of the tower in the early 1990s and the addition of a cross (both features are visible in this image). During 2007 the Clock Tower was refurbished and it is now topped with a lantern style cross.

Argosy Studio (Argos Industrial Photos) was a photography business owned and operated between 1950 and 1980 by Joe Greening (formerly employed by Elmar Studios). Originally located in Broadway, Argosy later moved to Cuba Street on the corner with Lombard Street.

As well as commissioned work (such as photographing the old railyards or aerial shots for the Council) Greening was known to operate as a street photographer, capturing the likenesses of passersby, offering his card with the negative number so they could buy the image if they wished. Many of these images will be in family photo albums.

A fire in 1965 destroyed many negatives in Argosy's collection but this image was one of the 400 or so survivors. Greening donated many of these surviving images to the Ian Matheson City Archives in 1989 before retiring to Kaitaia. He died in 2001.