BIG CITY DEVELOPMENT SCHEME

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2897, 9 October 1916, Page 10

BIG CITY DEVELOPMENT SCHEME

+ THE I'IiTURE OF TJS AUG. RECLAMATION. A big schcmo that is slowly taking form, and which, it is confidently expected will one (lav take effect in "Wellington, was touched upon by tlio Mayor (M'r. J. P. Luke) in course of a conversation on Saturday. For many years it lias been borne in upon many that there is very littlo prospect of a big railway future for To Aro, indeed, thore are those who have said that tho traffic to tho To Aro station docs not pay axle grcaso. Perhaps that is not altogether the fault of tho locality so much as the absence of goods-sheds, without which facilities tlie.ro can bo no commercial development. Somo time i ago the Minister of Railways (Mr. W. ,H. Horries) practically promised a goods-shed, but it was never ercctcd, and consequently tbo To Aro station has remained tho "dead olid" ifc has always been. It is now held that tho route followed by tho railwav lino along Customhouse and Jcrvois Quays must always bo a chock on tlio development of railway traffic between Lambton (or tho now) station and To Aro, for tho greater tho number of trains that pass slong thoso already wry busy thoroughfares, the moro hindrance will tlioy be to traffic between the wharves and tho city. A bigger idea has supplanted tho old one of developing railway business at Te Aro. The reclamation works at To Aro have been pushed out for a considerable distance sea.ward of tho To Aro station, and there is every prospect that this big block of newlyreclaimed land (including the late-la-mented dock site) will in time form an/integral part of the commercial section of the city. That being so, the- question of dispensing altogether "with ,the station and narrow yard which terminates at Clyde Quay naturally obtruded itself, and now a scheme is receiving consideration whereby the city slfall- acquire that property from tho- Government, giving in exchange the Thorndon Esplanade and land that will be reclaimed between tho Esplanade and Kaiwarra —land that will certainly and most urgently be required by the Railway Department, which is even now cramped for yard-room at Lambtoii' and Thorndon.

Referring to tho subject, tli© Mayor stated that already one conference Had Been field between, the . engineers of the City Council, tho Harbour Board, and tlie Railway Department (Messrs. Morton, Marohbanks, and M'Lean), and it was intended that a further conference on the subject will be held on Mr. M'Lean's return, to Wellington from tfie country. The work was a big one that would be of mutual benefit to all the parties concerned, as through roads could then bo laid from Wakefield Street through tho present railway grouuds and reclamation to tl*. wati<r-£ront. '11 le big area of land at' Thorndon was desirable for future expansion, in view of tho construction of the new railway station. \