COMMERCIAL RIVALRY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4307, 22 August 1921, Page 3

COMMERCIAL RIVALRY.

HAMILTON AND FRANKTON.

by literatus.

• The outsider finds material for mild amusement in the keen rivalry for the possession of new business ventures which is going on between Hamilton and Frankton. Up to-the present the amalgamation of Frankton borough with Hamilton does not appear to have been advantageous to the railway junction' centre. The electric power house, whicn belonged to Frankton, is no£ sufficiently powerful to supply all the current required, and so Frankton has to suffer , most of the new connexions being made in Hamiltion. The roads are in a disgraceful condition, full qf holes and being prolific in blackberries and gorse. Recently the noxious weeds were cut and the rubbish put into the holes on the road —an admirable piece of economical fascining for the local governing body of a highly pretentious town to undertake !

The impression prevails in Frankton, as it does all over the Waikato, and the Thames Valley, that Hamilton people are inordinately selfish towards other places, and go beyond the bounds of worthy civic pride and progressiveness in their efforts to advance the town—or their own private interests.

But every dog has his day, and Frankton is assuredly coming into its own, for expansion of business enterprise is no.v taking place very rapidly at the Junction. The N.K Co-op. Dairy Company’s box factory and the railway workers’ dwellings are the two main features in course of erection at present; but other things are coming along, and Frankton, will soon be a much more imposing and substantial place. .Having become exasperated at the narrow and nasty efforts of Hamilton to keep them back, .the business men of Frankton have now banded themselves into a business men’s association, pledged to foster the progress of Frankton to the utmost. Frankton has certainly more scope for expansion : Hamilton is blocked in largely by the Waikato River, but Frstnktoi has a flat plain before it right, up to Ngaruawahia, Despite its present size, Hamilton may yet become a slack end and Frankton the real centre, which its position as a railway junction entitles it to be.