"VERY SAD INDEED."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1189, 26 July 1911, Page 7

"VERY SAD INDEED."

■ -4 . SELLING THEIR BIRTHRIGHT, . "The wholo thing is very sad indeed," said his Honour tho Chief Justice yesterday in referring to the question of narrow streets in colonial towns. The remark was made during tho hearing of a case in the Supremo Court in connection with the move of the Miramar Borough Council to narrow King's Eoad. If one read the history of tho city of Perth, continued his Honour, it would bo seen that tho Miramar Borough Council were seeking to do the same thing that had ruined Perth. Years ago, in that city they believed that tho wide streets were too expensive to maintain, and they had Secured the power to narrow them. The result was that now, when tho population had increased, it was going to cost them thousands of pounds—perhaps hundreds of thousands of pounds—to widen them. "If thb peopls of Wellington had only looked ahead," said his Honour, "they could have saved this city thousands of pounds also. I do not blnmo them specially. There are other places in just the same position." Mr. T. F. Martin remarked that he was only Appearing as counsel for tho Miramar Borough in this case. His Honour: I know, but I only tell you this because you s.pcak of it as a matter of doing justice. Of course I 6hall decide the case on the law, and if the Legislature has made a blunder I shall have to carry it out. But I think it is very sad indeed!" Fifty years hence, continned his Honour, Wellington might be a city carrying a population of 200,000 people, and Miramav would be as thickly populated as parts of London, and yet they were going to sell the people's birthright by narrowing their streets, and bringing about a state of affairs that would assist tho growth of slums.