A QUIET YEAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2656, 30 December 1915, Page 9

A QUIET YEAR

CITY & ITS AFFAIRS

j SUMMARY BY THE MAYOR

' Municipally, the year now dying has not been marked by leaping progress. ■Bather it has been a period of mark-ing-time.* In some respects, however, it has been a remarkable year. The war has brought its cares, worries, and responsibilities to everyone, and to no ono more than the Mayor and his good wife, and no one who is in daily touch with the Town Hall will question the statement that His Worship and Mrs. Luke have worked ceaselessly, tirelessly, and enthusiastically for the dear causes we all have at heart. This should be mentioned initially, for when giving an account of the municipal year yesterday the Mayor omitted to mention tho big tasks ho had undertaken, and is still undertaking, that, strictly speaking, do not come within thei ordinary duties of. the First Citizen and Chief Magistrate. : . Reviewing the year from the Mayoral standpoint, Mr. Luke said that it had not been a. remarkable year from a municipal point of view, owing to the checking influences of the war, but the services of the city had been fully maintained throughout, the year in an efficient manner. No great/amount of loan money had been/expended. The schedule of loan works submitted to the council last year, and approved, had been' held in.abeyance until.the distinctly, .unsettled conditions caused by the war had passed. ■ Constable Street Tram.< The only outstanding new work of the year was the construction of a tramway track between Constable Street and South Kilbirnie by way of Crawford Road. This work had meant the widening of Crawford Road to a minimum width of 50ft:, which could only be mado possible by cutting away the banks on the western side, in some cases to so steep an'incline that they had to be' supported by. substantial foot' walls. At the lower end of the dew line (Kilbirnie South) a large store and shop and three dwellings had to be removed to enable 0e cars to swing round a cohier in safety, and also to. provide for the safety of ordinary , vehicular traffic. The work had also entailed the duplication of the tramway track, in Constable Street,' and with a view to its added importance the whole of that thoroughfare has been given a new surface. This has a concrete base and/a substantial surface of fine asphalt extending over , the entire width of /.the road. The tramway, track was now ready, said Mr. Luke, but owing to the non-delivery of the overhead and feeder wire, the new section could -not be used. It should be pointed'out, too, that the proper use of the new depot at South Kilbirnie has only been made possible, by the construction of the Crawford Road line. ' . > N , Tramway Progress. During the year a contract had been let for the erection of a large car depot at Kilbirnie South. This was" only preliminary to large and important tramway works, which provided for housing /accommodation for half tho cars employed in the service, iand a big workshop for the manufacture and repairing of cars. Several new cars have, been built during the year, mostly of tho double saloon'central entrance type, which were considered suitable to climatic and other conditions in - Wellington. Other cars were still on the stocks.'. A's there was a_ monthly statement'- published ■ dealing with the tramways revenue, it was almost unnecessary to go into figures, but to show the gro\vth in tlie traffic, the Mayor said that for the first seven months of the current financial year 16,786,203 passengers had been carried, as against 15,295,638 'for the corresponding period of * last year, and 1,891,238 car miles lmd been run in the last seven months, as against 1,627,945 cai; miles last year. Preparations were noiv being'made to duplicate the rest of the track to" Brooklyn, and steps had already been taken' to secure the required land at Seager's Corner, and the outting back hjis';- actually been made. When this work / was finished there would he a double track all the way from Upper Willis Street to Brooklyn. Cheaper. Ught?\ . : Matters in the electric lighting department had gone on very sriioothly' ind satisfactorily." Here the chief work iir the year had been the erection of a neir Parsons turbine" and the installation of a fine new switchboard, which enabled the new turbo-alternators to be run "in parallel.". The''whole system was working and extending so irery satisfactorily that there was a possibility of further concessions to users jf electric light. During the first seven months of tho current financial year 2,563,147 units had heen sold, as against 2,258,268 during tho corresponding period of last year. Maintenance of Streets. In referring to the work of maintaining the streets, Mr. Luko deferred to :ho efficacy of the> new storm-water Iraiii which had been laid from the corner of Constable and J)ai)iel. Streets, ivhioh had completely, cured the locality if flooding during heavy rains. Under in arrangement ; with the Government the City had maintained the Hutt Road taring .the year, but that work had now been taken over by the newly-appointed Hutt Road Board. A work which"had been attended to during, the' year was the widening out of Hutchison Road [from John Street to Vogeltown), and He easing of its sharp corners. This iiad been a pressing work for years, and iras dnf in common justice to the people if the. district. The onlv wood-paving 3one had been bite of- Willis Street, Bowen Street, and Lambton Quay. A perv work hod been accomplished in providing Molesworth Streot with a new surface—concrete base and wphalt surface—which provided as good i surface as wood-blocks .at considerably lees cost, with a life that was quite latisfactory. To prevent any further Hooding in lower Tinakori Road, an old ivooden storm-water culvert had been lispensed with, and a brick and concrete me of larger dimensions substituted. Upland Road and Kelbum Parade had beon improved, and a new 25ft. rond bad boon mado to Brooklyn (with a ijrade of 1 in 13. as against 1 in 7 in parts of the Ohiro Rond). Tin's ran narallel with the tramline, and could bo widened as .the traffic on it develoned. Sood w/>rk had heen done on the "Run Round." the road between Island and Dhiro Bays, where a stout sea wall had been erected at a spot where the sea foeatened the road formation. : Water and Drainage. Work in connection with the water service has consisted chiefly of mainten* mco and extension works. Owing ,to Hie development of .some of the morn ■Oevated suburbs such as' Kolhnrn and Northland,' it had been found necessary to substitute three-inch with fourinch mains in some portions of the eitv Wator services, too, had been extended to a great ninny isolated houses in the suburbs at- considerable expense, but the work was done in order that the drainage of these nlaces could be made efficient. 'At Wainui the pines below the reservoir have to be carried across tho stream in two places. During a bis storm the earth beneath them was scoured out. leaving them suspended in mid-Air, and liable to break. To prevent such an aceident the pipes had nAw been suspended on sttong concroto niers, which would provide Immunity from dajnaer la the case of an.v further

flooding. Extension work lind been done in the suburbs with the drainage system, and to provido tlio power foi the ever-increasing load, a further 15C h.p. triple expansion air-compressing engine bad been installed ftt Clydf Quay during the year of similar de sign to the one already there. Oil ac count of the isolated character of th< now buildings that have gone up during the past year, the work of extending drainage facilities had been unusually expensive. Forestry and Reserves. During the year the council had laid out municipal golf links at Berhampore; which were being fairly well patronised and would become popular witi familiarity. Central Park was fast developing into a beauty spot, both interesting and picturesque, and tree-plant-ing on an extensive scale had been done on tlio Kriakori Hills, where tree-life should abound. The various reserves were looking remarkably well, and the Zoo at Newtown Park was proving to be a, rear live attraction to the public! The one big work in connection with the reserves was the alteration that was to bo made to the Basin Reserve, by removing the fence from the footpath to the inside of the plantation, which would allow of the easing of the corners in the tramway tracks/ That work was to bo put in hand at once. The public libraries had catered ■ well for the public during, the year, and had not, through the medium of the schools, been unmindful of the children. , The Fire-Fighting Service, The Brigade had been kept up to a' iine pitch of' efficiency during the year. The erection of the new station that was'to serve Wellington South as well as Hataitai, Kilbirnie, "and Marnnui (to be erected at the Tov;n Belt at the. top of Constable, Street) was to bo pushed on with during the next financial year, and,, in such a commanding position, it was bound to be of the greatest service to the community of Wellington South and the over-the-hill suburbs. . Bathing-Places. Further-tlressing-sTied accommodation had' been provided during the year at I<yall and Island Bays and at Kilbirnie. These beaches were unquestionably becoming more and more popular with the young people, and were enjoyed all the more because the water was , unpolluted by anything in the nature of industrial ■■refuse, etc. . The Thorndon baths,' Which had silted up badly, constituted a .problem to be solved so mellow or other. > The' Harbour Board was desirous of continuing its reclamation works into ICaiwarra Bight, taking in the .area now occupied by the Thorndon baths. The Mayor had no desire to stay the. City's, progress and had suggested 'to. the board that in return for acquiring the baths, and so securing a right to continuo reclaiming the harbour northwards,. it should provide a tepid swimming bath, for the City somewhere on tho reclaimed land, as open sca-baths would always be at, a, disadvantage in that corner of tliG harbour. He pro-, posed that tlio matter should be set-' tied at a conference of the engineers of the Harbour Board, City Council, the Chief Engineer of the Dominion (Mr. Holmes), ,and the Railways Engineer. Thanks of the Mayor. . ■ -Tli© Mayor, in conclusion, wished to thank his colleagues, the members of the council/for the cordial relations that' had existed. during the year, and the ready "assistance and support they had accorded him throughout the year.' The administrative committees had'done a deal of good • work, and had sacrificed a grea'tf amount of time in so doing. To Mr. W. H. .Morton, tho City Engineer and Tramways Manager, he .was especially thankful. '"I-do not know how .he gets through the work," -said Mr. Luke, "for ever since the war broke out his work has been 'greatly increased, but his powers cSf initiation and ftrgnnisation never seem to fail him. and'tlie ordinary work-'of -the City has bocii attended to with the 6ame efficiency, though other duties have heon imposed on him/' Mr. Luke also specially mentioned tho services rendered bv the town Clerk (Mr. J, R. Palmer), the Citv Treasurer (Mr. C. Collins), and with particular warmth and enthusiasm, the invaluable services which had been rendered over a- long term of years bv the City Valuer (Mr, Jnnies Ames). All tho staff iii tho Town Hall and outside had responded finely to' the extra call on their services, and ho had nothing but praise and thanks to one and all. •