OVER THE HILL. KILBIRNIE STATES ITS NEEDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 86, 12 April 1911, Page 7

OVER THE HILL. KILBIRNIE STATES ITS NEEDS.

RESERVES AND RECLAMATION. DEPUTATION TO THE MAYOR. NO INCREASE OF RATES. Armed with numbers and led by cogent spokesmen, a large deputation of Kilbirnis residents waited on the Mayor (Mr. T. M. Wilford) to-day, and in plain speech expressed some suburban grievances. Mr. J. A. Heginbotham put tho casD for the people of Ivilbirnie. They considered that they had not been properly treated by the City Council in regard to the maintenance, upkeep, and extension of their recreation reserve. A certain amount of work had been, done on tho reserve . there, but a, great deal more ought to be done. Kilbirnie had not been, getting its fair share of the ratepayers' money, while a sum of £.2000 allocated by a former council had been, shamefully diverted from its destination — the improvement of the Kilbirnie recreation reserve — to some other part of the city. The present reserve was exposed to the north, and the deputa^tion requested that trees might be planted along the north side as a shelter belt. Then horses were left on the reserve at night and taken away in the morning. Corporation pipes had been stowed on the reserve, and took up valuable ground. Kilbirnie had been overlooked for Lyall Bay, and a particularly important scheme — that of the reclamation of the south end of Evans Bay, for which parliamentary powers had been granted—had been allowed to fall into abeyance. Under the Act the Harbour Board was empowered to step in by 1914 and undertake the work of reclamation for its own purposes, if necessary. The dejmtation urged that the City Council should not overlook this date and allow a valuable opportunity of promoting the welfare of the suburbs to slip from its grasp. "DO NOT LET THE CHANCE SLIP." Mr. Jp-mee Clark emphasised this last aspect. It -was a vital matter to Kilbirnie that the reclamation should be done by the City Council before the Harbour Board could step in. He pointed out that the Harbour Board had already carried out a reclamation on the other side of the bay in deep -water. They would jump at an, opportunity of an easy reclamation on the Kilbirnie side, where there was only three feet of water. If the expense of a concrete -wall wasi too formidable, a stone wall would do j well in the meantime. The feeling of the district was very strong in this matter. He again urged the council not to let the chance slip. THE MAYOR'S REPLY. The Mayor first of all disclaimed rej fiponsibility for last year's estimates. They were framed before he came into j office. He could lay his fir&fc schedule of estimates before the council in a week or so. He could assure Mr. Heginbotham that the council would for the coming year put a sum on the estimates for the upkeep and maintenance of the Kilbirnie reserve as for the other city j s-eserves. The reason why bo money was spent last year was that when he cams into office he found that £10,000 had j been spent on the reserves 1 in the pre- 1 vious year, and there was not enough ! money to go round last year. He had been compelled to cut £10,000 down to £6000. The exact amount would be j shown, on the balance-sheet he would j bring down that afternoon. How much ■ money Kilbirnie would get would depend j on what the committee felt was a fair I thing. Oni the question of the lapse of the option on the reclamation of Evans Bay in 1914 the Mayor reassured the deputation that a simple Washing-up Bill could extend the date, as thought fit. He was absolutely certain the Harbour Board was not looking for any moa:© reclamation at present, and the Kilbirnie people might rest at ease on that scoie. The estimate for reclamation till over was £5208 an acre, which with streets' and lighting would amount to £6000, or £300 a year at 5 per cent., an. impossible figure. Personall}^ he considered the present reclamation at Miramar had been absolute waste of money. It might as well have been dumped into the sea. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Wilford added that he- did not think a stonewall would be a wiee substitute for a concrete wall. It would hardly do to erect a stone wpll and then pull it down again, and build a concrete wall. If they did it at all, they should do it properly. RESERVE OR. CORPORATION YARD? On another point raised by the deputation Mr. Wilford said he quite recognised what a monstrous thing it was to ■ use the Kilbirnie Reserve as a dumpingground for surplus corporation material. They, had also, unlortunarely, had to use tho back-yard of a corporation labourer at Kilbirnie for the storage of material. That was v/hy the council had bought ten acres from the Craw- . ford Estate at Lyall Bay, half to be used as corporation yards and half for tramway sheds. Mi". Hegiubotham : That is a great shame, when we have a. reserve in Kilbirnie suitable for the purpose. The Mayor: Where ia that? Mr. Heginbotham: At the Duncanterrace. The Mayor: And nothing on it? Mr. He^inbotham: Only the- fire station. The Mayor replied that if they had not a fire station they would be the first to ask for one. NO GREAT EXPENSE AT LYALL BAY. Continuing, he mr.de it clear that the council contemplated no very great expenditure at Lyall Bay. They_ intended to erect conveniences and dreesing-shede, but the main twenty-four acres reserve would be left untouched as a playground for children and citizens generally. Th© tw-e-lve acres which the Government had presented to the council would have to be- improved, as the Government made it a slipulafcion it should have the use of this area on occasion^ for Territorial parades and reviews. DID THEY WANT £100,000? After expressing regret f«r the £2000 diverted improperly away from Kilbirnie before his term as Mayor, and an assurance that the losb would be made good. Mr. Wilford dealt with the broad question of the demands from tho suburbs over the hill. He noted that the united demands they had made <xa tho cocmcil in large schemes alone came to over £100,000— £70,000 for th'e proposed new tunnel and £20,000 odd for" the Constable-street extension, being tho chief items. There was a demand for £100,000, and the whole revenue of the city did not exceed £250,000, and of that £208,000 went in vages, sinking fund, and interest. Let them wait a little till the municipal leases fell in — about three years hence — and then they woidd have £30,000 a year revenue without raising a penny of rates. That repiesented the interest on £600,000, a vast accretion of value to the city. In the meantime, he would like to assure ihe deputation that he waa iiot going to ' raise the rates, nor g&ing to rate extra j for the Kilbirnie reserve or any other i ;part of the citjr.

RATES NOT TO BE INCREASED. "I am not going to advocate any increase of rates," declared the Mayor again, after an interjection by a member of the deputation. "The rates are quito high enough now. Increasing rates only means increasing rents, and you know what, that means. People would have us spend more mon6y tHan we have revenue, but we are not going to do that. This j ear, I may say, we are within our revenue. It is my intention to maintain a safe polic}' during the coming year." Mr. Clark pressed the Mayor for a definite answer to the question whether the City Council was going to undertake the reclamation -at an early date or not. The Mayor : So far as I am concerned. I say emphatically "No." Mr. Heginbotham : If it is no good going to the City Council for it,' well, we understand that. The Mayor assured th© deputation that it could come before the" council itself, if it thought it necessary. Mr. Clark considered the reclamation on the Kilbirnie side was quite a simple matter compared with th© work on the other side. It would not coet more than £1000 an acre, and he was quite" prepared personally to pay £100 a year zental. Af ter_ a few further observations, the deputation retired.