The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1941. WHAKATANE'S CHANGING FACE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 152, 8 September 1941, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1941. WHAKATANE'S CHANGING FACE

A GENERATION of Whakatane people have seen the Borough stone-crushing plant at work in Commerce Street. Year after year the rocky spurs which form the background to the town's road approach have been chipped away and converted into road metal and used as spoil for reclamation work. This process-has gone on slowly but surely until it has provided level sites for business premises in many parts of the town. It is safe to surmise that the scene of the present operations will in years to come be cleared and offered for lease thus making way for additional business sites of the future. Inside 'The Rock' the same thing happened in earlier t:imes, indeed it is not so. long ago that Pohaturoa itself was saved from being levelled by the so-called progressive element. But it is interesting to< recall that all the spoil for the reclamation on the river sf.de of the Strand was taken from the cliff face backing Clifton Road. Actually that street did not exist until the hillside was cut back to make room for it. It has been said that if a long-sleeping pioneer could be presented with the town as we know it and told, it was the same centre he had known fifty or sixty years ago. he would not believe it* What was the 'strand in very essence in the earlier days has now become a two-sided 'street. Public roadway sweeps all sid-es of the Rock; the wharves have been removed to deeper water and have become substantial structures; the Harbour Board groynes have been constructed with stone brought from Whale Island; the 'Heads' have become a popular residential area; Hilldrest a suburb; Kopeopeo has sprung up from nearby meadows and the great mass of buildings forming the Paper Mill's dominate, the towns further background. It is this trend of thought which makes for contemplation of the: future. There can be no donbt but that our town must continue to expand as its back country develops. The continued housing shortage (in spite of war conditions) is a good barometer as to its wage-earning status. There is an aqute shortage of labour in the town yet accommodation remains at a premium. JWhakatane could absorb another two hundred , workers with ease for there is scarcely a business in the town which is not working shorthanded. Thus we arrive at the post-war picture. Well, in this respect it is safe to anticipate that with a thousand men away from the district ■*

the sudden re-absorbing of sucih a number into industry and commerce will mean an inflation of the town's services and facilities. We can contemplate with a degree of certainty a new Post Office —probably the largest building in Whakatane, and definitely the most expensive and up-to-date- After its erection, who can say what new buildings will spring up around it. We can envisage a fillup to building generally, following the number of young couples keen to set up new homes. All trades will be stimulated by the increased service which will be necessary, thus encouraging the .erection of new or extended premises. All this will contribute to the changed nature of the face of the town, and if the next twenty years are t;o meet with the same degree of progress and expansion as have the last, we can view the future with considerable satisfaction.