HAWERA TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2624, 20 November 1915, Page 12

HAWERA TO-DAY

A WELL-EQUIPPED TOWN

ITS £36,000 SCHEME

One of tho neatest and best equipped towns in the Dominion is Hawera. Hawera has for many years been a solid business centre, and always a very, presentable town. But of late it has gone ahead rapidly. Tho streets have been made cleaner, neater, and more sanitary, and, if the present rate of progress is maintained, it is on its way to becoming a model town. . Still, however desirable a model town-, there is always a limit to municipal expenditure. ■A big improvement scheme is now being pushed forward. A few years ago tho ratepayers authorised what is known as the £30,000 loan, and an additional loan of £6000, was afterwards obtained. The main items in the improvement plan are the tar macadamising of the streets and the footpaths, and the making of concrete kerbings and channellings for the footpaths. .Tlie work has been in full swing 'for a year, and forty to fify ■ men are employed on it. The tar macadam roads appear to be a success, and certainly they are cleaner and quieter than tlieir predecessors. Tlie metal for the work is obtained from Belmont, on the Hutt line. Taranaki metal is too_ soft to last Ions;. The tar used is specially refined. The footpaths are made by a similar process to that adopted for the roads, except that smaller metat is used. The preparation is mixed in what is claimed to be the only tar macadam mixing machine in the Dominion. Hawera has an excellent and abundant water supply from the Kapuni Stream, eleven miles distant. The town is completely sewered, and practically every house is connected with the wateT supply. As to the streets, ono who is qualified to judge observes: "I don't think the streets of Hawera are equalled in any town its size in New Zealand."