ENGINERING RECORD

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 123, 22 February 1928, Page 5

ENGINERING RECORD

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN WELLINGTON MAYOR'S OUTLINE OF PROGRESS In welcoming the delegates to the annual conference of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers at Victoria College yesterday, the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Troup) gave a resume of the engineering works which had been achieved in Wellington, and the- effect they had had upon the health and prosperity of the city. The Mayor expressed the pleasure it gave him to welcome the delegates, and mentioned that he had worked, or had been associated with, Hie majority of them tn past years. lie realised what an important part engineers played in the life of the community, and more particularly that part of the coinmunitv which dwelt within the confines of cities. In Wellington they were indebted to the. engineers for practically everything they had in the way of public facilities. At one time the waters of the harbour lapped within a lew' feet of the hills. Tl.ie whole of the citv had been made either by' reclamation from the ’harbour or had been carved out of the hills. Io make a citv on the site selected by the early settlers called for initiative and very great skill on the part of the engineers, and one would naturally expect that it had been done at very great cost Strange to sav, the indebtedness, of Wellington per head at the present time was much less than the indebtedness, of Auckland, and a little less than that of Dunedin. Forty years ago they were subject to typhoid fever and scarlet fever epidemics, which always came annually. Engineers were called in to solve the difficulty ana get rid of the danger, and had done it with such success that Wellington was the healthiest place in New Zealand. That fact was proved by the latest figures obtained from the Government Statistician, and which bore out the. figures of previous years. The highest death-rate in the four centres was in Dunedin, which showed a record of 1Q.31 per 1000 of the population in 1927; the figures for Christchurch were 10.03; Auckland, 8.79; while Wellington was the lowest with 8.19. This had been brought about by the efforts of the engineers, and was greatly to their credit. , Mr. Troup also referred to the yen’ well-designed harbour works Wellington possessed, and said that that, again, was due to the work of the engineers. Not only had Mr. Marchbanks designed the wharves and other engineering facilities in connection with them, but he had undertaken the management and put the business side of Wellington harbour on such a basis that it excited the envy of others. Referring to other improvements engineers had made here, the Mayor said thev had something like one hundred miles of bituminous roadways in Wellington and its vicinity, and those who remembered the conditions which prevailed in earlier years would realise the great improvement which had been made, not only in the roads,, but in the general appearance of the city. It was cleaner and healthier, and the low’ death-rate would be still further reduced. . , . , The chairman (Mr. C. J. McKenzie) thanked the Mayor for his address.