BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 94, 7 May 1937, Page 40 (Supplement)

BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS

Progress Since the Nineties SOUTH ISLAND MIGRATION "I arrived in Hastings in April, 1899 and, witli Mr. W. I. Jones, took over tlie Hastings Standard on May 1," writes Mr. "William Ilart, Mayor of Hastings from 1913 to 1917 and from 1921 to 1922, "Hastings at that time had a population of 3000 ovei- an area of 5760 acres, and now has about 13,000 people, with an area of 2601 acres. ""What puzzled me most at first was how people got their living, as tliere was only oue concern, the Tomoana freezing-works, employing any considerable number of hands in season. The most thriving husinesses at that time were the engineering works and blaeksmiths ' shops, the* lattcr being in Heretaunga street. Tliere were a number of carpenters but very littlc work offering, exeept in the country. There wero three or four, cahs plying for hire, and about the same number of low drays doing the carrying of the town. The business shops were liaving a • lean time in those days ; the people preferred going by train to Napier then for their goods. , It was no unusnal thing to see the guard's van laden with Napier purchases. "Hastings," Mr. Hart adds. "was very hackward.for roads in those "days- In Heretaunga street alone after rain yon would easily get over your boot-tops in mud. It was all vehicular traffic in those days, and the livery stables did a good share of business. The first motor-car was announced to arrive at Hastings from Auckland, and the people rolled np in large numbers to see it. This was in 1899 or early in 1900. "What concerned me most when I came here was the smallness of the street blocks. There were too many corner sections. Had the blocks been made 19 chains long instead of six, what a saving there would have been in mainteQanee. ■ "It was freely stated in the South Island in the nineties that they were 25 years ahead of the North — that is, settlement was very far in advance. Hence the drift to various parts of the North Island. Hastings at that time was shunned by the moving population because of the reports of typhoid, which was prevalent, and also becaupe of -»the frequent reports of fires. However, the Hastings district came into its own some few years after, and people floeked here from all parts. A few South Islanders got . togethcr in Hastings and considered the question of holding a reunion, which has been held annually with great success ever since. • , • "To'my mind," savs Mr. Hart, "there have been three perious blunders: (1) The original cutting of the borough into three-acre blocks, which has meant an expenditure of thousands of pounds in maintenance ; . (2) giving tlie right to the Napim* Gas. Co. for all time; and (3) not taking advantage of the earthquake disaster to widen tlie ' streets. "Hastings was made a borough in 1886, and fpr a number of years the various councils did good spade work, including a loan for sewerage purposes, which was badly lleeded. There was a steady improvem'ent in population which has continued up to' the present time. > "The first real'move to lift the borough from easy going was in 1909, when the council, .under Mr. J. A. Miller, as Mayor, snbmitted a sclieme to the ratepayers, for extcnding the sewer, a high-pressure water scheme, aiid bititmen roads and footpaths. The loan was sanctioned, aud the work was eventually completed. A further big loan was authorised in .1913, during my term of office, for a theatre and municipal buildings, extension of road work and electrical work, and the buildings and electricity departments proved a success from the start. From then on the borough has gone ahead by leaps and bounds, and the time is not* far away when we shall have a larger population than our sister town."