ENGLISH URBAN DISTRICT HAS A RATE OF 14s 4d

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 90, 3 September 1948, Page 5

ENGLISH URBAN DISTRICT HAS A RATE OF 14s 4d

Many Points Of ■ Interest In N,Z. Some interesting facts are included in a pamphlet on Wal-ton-on Thames, England, sent to the Whakatane Rotary Club for its information. Of particular interest will be the reference to rates. If it is not a misprint, the urban district of Walton and Weybridge has a 'population of 38,000, a rateable value of £468,000, and a general rate of 14/4d in the £1! That figure should impress local citizens who consider our own rates are high. Walton is of particular interest to NewJZealanders, because many veterans of World War I will remember that Mount Felix Mansion .at Walton and the Oatlands Park Hotel were used as hospitals by the N.Z. Government. No fewer than 27,000 men received treatment there, and £2 of them lie in Walton cemetery. Their names are recorded on the Memorial. The Rotary Club has recently had the • inscription stones cleaned, the inscriptions re-written and the curbs reset, and the local branch of the British Legion has always carefully tended the graves. A broad new road joining the main shopping centre with Walton Bridge has been named New Zealand Avenue. Incidentally, this is where the world-famous Brooklands motor racing track was situated, before it was turned over to war purposes during the'l939-45 war. The area is now entirely used for industrial purposes. Walton has other associations with the age of speed. Its industries include Vickers-Armstrong, makers of Spitfire and Wellington warplanes, arid Thomson and. Taylor Ltd., who b.uilt the Railton Mobil special car used by John Cobb for his record-breaking trial on Utah’s Salt Flats.