EDUCATION BOARD ACTS QUICKLY TO ACCEPT PROPERTY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 70, 17 July 1950, Page 5

EDUCATION BOARD ACTS QUICKLY TO ACCEPT PROPERTY

A report that they might lose the property altogether galvanised the Auckland Education Board into action last week to serve notice that they were going to take over 20 acres of land off McAlister Street for the new Whakatane High School. This was done in two days. Previously the Board had been negotiating for the property for the last nine months. The land is a large flat area off McAlister Street and the Board has been trying to make up it’s mind for over nine months. Last week the Bay of Plenty Winter Show Association and the Whakatane-Ran-gitaiki A. and P. Association decided they would combine to purchase the property, if the owners were willing to sell to them.

After some discussion the owners expressed themselves as willing and the two associations paid a substantial deposit immediately for an option. And there the matter would have rested as far as the owners and the two show asociations were concerned. However, it was not to be. Communication between Whakatane and Auckland commenced and almost immediately the Board advised that it had decided to purchase the property. .And that was not all. An officer of the Board followed soon after and served a notice that the land was being taken under the Public Works Act.

That is the present state of affairs but it would seem that if Whakatane gets a new school shortly it can thank the two show associations for making the Board move. What nine months had failed to do was done in two days. The property is considered by the two. associations as being ideal for a Showground. In the town and near the residential area of the borough it is also out of the busy sections. There is ample land, even for large show buildings. It is not yet known who has won