Premier Ewart Brown performed the ceremonial roof wetting at the new Police Station and Court Building.

The $70 million building at the corner of Church, Court and Victoria streets, will house the Hamilton Police, five Magistrates' Courts, along with several Government departments.

The ceremony, held on Monday, was followed by speeches by Dr. Brown and Works and Engineering Minister, Derrick Burgess.

Mr. Burgess said: "I cannot help but recall the early days of this project, especially the scepticism and cynicism that we've heard from some quarters, but we were not distracted from the task at hand.

"Our focus was to provide a building about which the entire community could be proud."

Police Commissioner George Jackson and Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner attended the ceremony, along with representatives of the Government departments that will move into the building once it is completed.

On Friday, Mr. Burgess said that the steel structure, reinforcing, external and internal walls and roofing on the building is 99 percent complete.

However, the building is not expected to open for use until 2011 with internal work on the building expected to take around 18 months.