Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12, 1949 WHAT WE LACK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 40, 12 January 1949, Page 4

Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12, 1949

WHAT WE LACK

Well, we asked for it. We asked visitors what .they thought of this place, and they told us. Admitted, most of them came from bigger towns, and probably thought us a bit primitive, but there i§ something to be learned from their criticism.

One complained that it was an awkward place in which to get a meal at odd times. He is quite right. It is.

There was a proposal some time back to v establish a mobile canteen th si would, presumably, have given a service when meals at restaurants and hotels were "oil”, but, though the Borough Council gave the scheme its limited blessing, nothing has come of it yet. Still remains a lot in our visitor’s statement that a good, reasonably-priced meal, served at 1 “off” times, would be a great asset to the place. Anyone giving such a service could be reasonably sure of substantial patronage.

We heard a lot about the Ohope road, and the road through the beach settlement. Such complaints are not new. Local citizens make them, too. However, now that Ohops has asked the County Council to make it a special rating area and to provide better facilities, the settlement itself should soon-see improvement. That leaves the much-malign-ed hill road to the beach. But the County engineer gave a lot of hopeful information concerning that in an interview yesterday. There seems reason to hope that within a year one bad patch will be cut out and a long-term plan to provide a decent road all the way is shaping, and will doubtless be put into effect if it gets the public support it deserves.

Some of the visitors suggested improvements at the beach itself. It would seem that most of the things suggested fall within the scope of the Progress League, which could no doubt rely upon support from the County, and Borough. Councils if •t decided to create facilities that would make Ohope more of an asset to both County and Borough than it is today. In a way, it. seems surprising that there has been so little pressure brought on the Borough to assist in providing access and amenities for Ohope. which has

a part of the Borough so far as community of interest is concerned.

Apart from the fact that it is Whakatane’s natural playground, Ohope, with its baches and summer residences which have been made temporarily (and in some cases almost permanently) available to homeless newcomers, has probably saved the Borough Council the absolute necessity of going yi for some sort of transit housing scheme.