BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1950 OHOPE’S PROGRESS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 34, 18 December 1950, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1950 OHOPE’S PROGRESS

There is nothing new in the suggestion of Chamber of Commerce president, Mr B. L. Butler, that a coast road is needed to Ohope but it is as well that this subject has been brought up for airing. At the back'of the minds of most people concerned with or interested in the Ohope road problem there is the belief that this is the solution to the problem. Sealing of the present road will eliminate much nuisance but it will not eliminate bends and hills. It. is not hard, however, to understand the official attitude that, while there is a road, it must be improved rather than that a new one should be built. Nevertheless, within a few years, a new road will be essential. There are said to be 500 permanent residents at Ohope now, an indication of tendency to progress in spite.of inadequate access. As a summer resort also, Ohope is likely to be the North Island favourite soon. • Ohope will progress without a good road. It will progress to the stage where that road must be provided. Once that road is provided Ohope’s progress may be sensational. . When Ohope is only two miles from town by flat road, it will be as much part of the town as is Kopeopeo. The progress of Ohope and Whakatane will be as one. Should Whakatane’s population grow to 5,000 or 6,000, it is not ambitious to estimate that Ohope’s will grow to at least 1,000. For the interests of Ohope and Whakatane are the same. It is not too early to wonder how Ohope should be controlled. It will soon be a town in its own right. It will not, however, have the industry or rate-paying capacity to be an independent town district or borough. It will not be logical for it to remain part of the County indefinitely. The logical thing will be for it to become incorporated in Whakatane borough, to which its interests are so closely tied. That is what should happen when access is easy and population is sufficient to ensure that rates would not be too high.