Former Post Office

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The New Zealand Graphic and Ladies Journal, 29 February 1908, p.30
 View of Papers Past 

Streamers of bunting were suspended from the clock tower of the new Post Office when it officially opened in 1908.  A striking feature of the building was the 18 m (58ft) clock tower. The Government  contributed £8OO towards the cost of providing the clock, and another £300 was raised locally—£200 by subscriptions and a floral fete, and £100 was donated by the Borough Council. (Source: Waikato Independent, Volume VII, Issue 473, 15 February 1908, Page 5)

Keeping Cambridge on Time

Before radio time signals became common in the 1920s, Cambridge townsfolk relied on the post office’s clock tower to know the correct time.

The Dominion Observatory in Wellington kept New Zealand’s official time. A direct telegraph line carried the daily signal to the Wellington General Post Office, and from there it was sent out to post offices across the country.

Each morning at 8.55 a.m., the Morse key would begin clicking. It stopped precisely at 9 a.m., when the telephonist would call out “Time!”.  Every clock in the Post Office building was then checked and adjusted if needed, before the public counter opened.

The tower was removed in 1931 and the clock rehoused in a new tower in Jubilee Gardens.