A NEW FIRE STATION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2689, 8 February 1916, Page 2

A NEW FIRE STATION

AND THE RIGHTS OF OITIZENB. Mr. William Tonks has again entered the lists to protest against tho utilisation of a portion of the Town Belt for any purpose other than that named in the original deed of trust. Sinco Wellington was settled, the place has outgrown tho farthest limits placed npon City settlement by the New Zealand Land Company. Wellington has, so to speak, burst its bonds, and has spread beyond tho encompassing mountain ranges that enclose the City on three sides. Probably in no direction has the growth of settlement been so rapid as in Hataitai, Kilbirnie, and Lyall Bay dnring the past five or six years, and that growth has not stopped yet. Two years ago Superintendent Tait saw that a new fire station would, sooner or later, become an absolute necessity at Wellington South, and, taking into consideration the trend of settlement beyond the eastern range of hills, he decided that no site would sciTe the entire district so well as the crest of the hill at the top of Constable Street. The place would command a view of the whole of Wellington South on tho one hand, and the Kilbirnie Valley on the other, and moreover the site was admirable, inasmuch as no matter in which direction an outbreak of fire may occur, the beginning of the mm would be down-hill, an important consideration where motor fireengines are concerned. It has been decided to erect the new fire station on the crest of the hill on the northern side of the cutting, adjoining the Newtown Tennis Club's courts, and half an acre of the Town Belt has been earmarked for that purpose. Mr. Tonks, in the interests of the inhabitants of Wellington, has written 1 objecting to tlio' Town Belt being encroached upon, and has also written to the. Minister of Public Works on the subject, and Mr. H. J. H. Blow, UnderSecretary, has, in turn, written to the City Council for information. .