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The rear portion of the upper floor of the Masterton chief post-office building was removed, and the corresponding lower portion strengthened and repaired, in order to overcome damage caused by earthquake in 1942. The Trentham Military Camp post-office building was converted into a smaller office to serve the transit housing and hostels now established in the area. Surplus defence and other buildings were used for departmental purposes as follows: post-offices at French Pass, Lake Road (Auckland), Mauriceville, W ash dyke, Westown, and Whakatu; auxiliary post-office accommodation at Ashburton and Takapuna; additional workshops accommodation at Dunedin and Newmarket; additional garage and workshops accommodation at Gisborne; additional line-depot accommodation at Hastings; additional accommodation for the National Broadcasting Service at Makara Radio; temporary telephoneexchange buildings at Opunake, Tamaki, and Three Kings (Auckland) ; additions to living-quarters at Waituna West; bachelor accommodation at Lincoln (two-man) and Waimiha (two-man) ; and a hostel (twenty-man) at Wellington Radio. Surplus defence buildings were converted into transit flats for departmental employees as follows: Christchureli (six flats), Morrinsville (one flat), Musick Radio (three flats), Omakau (one flat), Palmerston North (two flats), Takapau (one flat), Whangarei (five flats). Land was acquired at—Ashburton (for automatic-telephone exchange) ; Becks (for rural-automatic exchange) ; Blockhouse Bay (for post-office) ; 0 aver sham (for post-office) ; Claudelands (for automatic-telephone exchange) ; Clyde (with residence—for line foreman) ; Dominion Road South (for residence) ; Dunedin North (for post-office) ; Ellerslie (for automatictelephone exchange) ; Epuni (for post-office) ; Fendalton and Fitzroy (for automatic-telephone exchanges) ; Grey mouth (for line depot) ; Greymouth (with residence —for transit housing) ; Hamilton East (for automatic-telephone exchange) ; Hororata (for residence) ; Invercargill East (for automatictelephone exchange) ; Kaiapoi (for post-office) ; Kilbirnie (for automatictelephone exchange) ; Maori Hill (for post-office) ; Masterton (for automatictelephone exchange) ; Moerewa (with building—for post-office) ; Morrinsville (for transit housing) ; Oamaru (with residence —for transit housing) ; Oamaru North (for post-office) ; Ohura (for transit housing) ; Opotiki (extension of post-office site) ; Opotiki (for line depot) ; Palmerston North (for extension of line-depot site) ; Parakao (for post-office) ; Picton (for residence) ; Putaruru (for transit housing) ; Putaruru (for bachelor accommodation) ; Ruatoki North (for post-office) ; Russell (for post-office and quarters) ; Sawyers Bay and South Invercargill (for post-offices) ; Timaru (for transit housing) ; Te Kuiti (extension of line depot) ; Upper Hutt (for residence) ; Upper Hutt (for automatic-telephone exchange) ; Waipawa (for post-office) ; Wanganui (for addition to line depot) ; Washdyke and Waterloo (for post-offices); and Wellington South (for automatic-telephone exchange). A residence with section adjoining was acquired at Whangarei North. An automatic-telephone exchange will be erected on the section. Residences at Taradale, Orepuki, and Waitahuna were purchased for occupation by the respective Postmasters. In addition, the premises in Oriental Bay, Wellington, known as Berkeley House, which the Department has conducted for several years as a hostel for female officers, were acquired. Properties disposed of during the year were the old post-office site at Denniston, the cable hut at Doubtless Bay, the old post-office and site at Kuaotunu, and redundant post-office sites at Mohaka and Ngawha. The Opotiki line-store site was exchanged for land owned by the Police Department at the rear of the post-office site.

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