PETONE, 1917-18

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 97, 17 January 1918, Page 7

PETONE, 1917-18

■r. —4 " ■ A REVIEW A PROSPEROUS COMMUNITY I The year 1917 proved in some way! sather a diffioulfc time for Petoue, ai ,Ht[uite a few problems of importance con • jfronted the municipality, and had tc ke grappled with under conditions thai 'forbade a liberal expenditure of publii moneys/ Some of .the problems nccos isarily remained unsolved at the em jof the year, but that. wns scarcely jdue to lack of effort .on tho part ol 'the" council; and everything possible if "done at present tonmet tho needs ol \vtbat ' is; on the whole, a prosperous ■ ■• As was natural under war conditions, there was very little house-building ■thiring the year/ ■ Only five dwelling! jV'ere erected, and that figure was the uoweat for many a year. A great num•ber of' houses that were fast reaching tho point at which they would be uninhabitable' were arrested in-their progress towards utter ruination, and ■wore restored to some semblance of ■their former selves. A good deal oi fcrcnovniinp!,' however, yet remains :tc 'be carried but,' and tho housing problem will not, of course, end with the of that work: TJhcre arc : still too many houses containing more '•than one family, and if • private oi jGovernment enterprise' does not proivide housing adequate to the needs of fa growing population, it is held in some Quarters that the municipal authorities l.will have to see what they can do. The Question of the water supply /cropped up, as usual, during 1917. The [■difficulty was not to niuev "uic ormn.ary demand, but to meet tho extraordinary demand that came- 'with the .-summer. Tho engineer was instructed report' upon , tbo' possibility* of aug'inenting the supply in the summer ■ imonths.. Tho.. adoption of any scheme Hot doing the work will, of course, 'necessitate the raising 'of a loan. I A great increase in traffic wrought Considerable damage to the streets, .'.which are not now in as good a condition: as, they were, in a few years ago. 'All that tho council can .do until it (Taises a loan is to effect minor repairs and improvements. ■ .... amount of work was 'done" upon the. borough.sewage service in .1917,' and'. by' now about one-half of the houses in "the Petbne benefit by jljio service. .The plumbing, department was. kept busy, and achieved most '■Satisfactory results. ... . On the industrial side, Petone went 'ahead somewhat in the course'of the year. The Woollen Company wont in for extensive additions to the mills, (Ellis and Manton completed a new candle factory, and the Gear Company, ■as usual, made several additions to its plant.. The Levers Company acquired 60 acres of land on' the Petone bank of the Hutt River for the purpose of founding a larjge branch of their jsoap and candle business. ; The council has by no means overlooked tho advantages that are avail.able to Petone through its possession ''of-a sea front. Bathers and promehaclers now have increased facilities at their disposal, hut lack of funds pre,vents the carrying, out of many desirable improvements. • The ' council's ■ coal department had quite-a good year, and has now every prospect of doing better as time goes ■on.. ■ i . ■ ■■ The motor service—the latest of the council's ventures —is being well supported, and seems likely to flourish without the aid of much additional expenditure. '