CITY STATUS.

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 92, 15 October 1940, Page 11

CITY STATUS.

LOWER HUTT

APPLICATION TO BE MADE

CHANGE OF NAME

SUGGESTED

Under the Municipal Corporations Act a population of 20,000 lifts a borough to city status, and Lower Hutt is therefore making formal application to the Governor-General to be proclaimed a city. It has also been suggested that, along with city status, the borough should be renamed, and at last evening's meeting of the Borough Council a committee was set up to choose a suitable name. Any new name, however, will need the sanction of the Geographic Board.

The Mayor (Mr. J. W. Andrews) said that last April the official estimate of the population was 20,100, and since that date, in spite of the absence of men who have joined the forces, there had been an addition of at least 1000.

The estimate mentioned by the Mayor is for the population within the present boundaries, but as there is a petition to extend the boundaries to the Taita Gorge the prospects are that the inclusion of the additional area will increase the population to such an extent that Lower Hutt will rank as one of the largest cities in the Dominion, apart from the four main centres. ' '

Councillor H. V. Horlor suggested last evening that there might be considerable opposition to the proposal to alter the name, but nevertheless he favoured the idea because ' it- would .abolish both the word "Lower" and the word "Upper." If Lower Hutt changed its name Upper Hutt could then be known as "Hutt."

Two suggested names, "Heretaunga" and "Te Marua," each have the disadvantage that they are already in use, the name Heretaungc. (the Maori name for the river) being used for a portion of the upper valley and the name Te Marua (Maori for the valley) being adopted further north still. • In connection with the petition to extend the boundaries a commission which has been set up will hear .evidence on November 13 at the Lower Hutt Borough Chambers.