MOUNT ALBERT'S SCORIA.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 7 September 1916, Page 3

MOUNT ALBERT'S SCORIA.

TO THE EDITOR

Sir,—Would you kindly allow me space for a few friendly words about that Mount Albert affair? Over 1600 persons signed a petition praying that no more scoria should be removed from Mt. Albert. I would like to ask the " Albertians " how many of them went there to live because Mt. Albert was there ? And how many care too straws whether the mount is removed or not ? And how many signed the petition without consideration, and who simply did so on the representation of someone else —no doubt well meaning, but misguided, individuals.

And again : Why should the few who live around that district'have a greater claim to the mount than settlers further away, whose needs are -greater ? No doubt many residents are getting a living and supporting their families out of earnings from Mt. Albert, and it their petition were granted, would they no t be thrown out of employment?

Many people remember the days when Mt. Albert itself was in the backblocks, and it was a plaoe where only the most daring spirits ventured out from amongst the early settlers to explore that wild unknown land away to the west. And how, at that period, Auckland was in the lower Queen Street, and how the few in the new settlement, turned out to'a man to welcome home a^ain the returning travellers, for had they not come laden with beautiful hirds called by the Maoris " Ooq-coq,l^ to,' replenish the scanty larders of those at home ? And did not a glowing accqunt appear next day in the " JSfevv " (top, of Sbortland Street) of their adventures and discoveries qf rich land covered with native bush and teeming- with bird-life ? What a change has taken place since those early days! And what has brought that great ohange abeut in so few years ? Why, the main cause has been the growth and prosperity of Auckland, brought about by the railway —though it toqk; ahoqt nine years t,Q get from Auckland to Qnehungu, six miles— that great civiliser and mainstay qf the pioneer settler !

The 1600 people in question perhaps forget that there are 20,000. waiting for the blessings of a railway such as is enjoyed by themselves. And perhaps they do not even realise that their own livelihood depends upon that rail being pushed further afield to develop new country and bring the raw material out to be handled' and worked up by the manufacturer, thus giving employment to many, and possibly hundreds of the noble sixteen hundred.

After many weary years of waiting, '' Kiwi" can now stand at his home and see dozens of trucks daily going. North laden with merchandise from Auckland,

and other trains pulling loads o,f raw. material, such as logs fo,r the saw,m,ills, cattle, sheep, gum,, fish, butter, and m.any other things, gqiqg squth. tq Auckland, to pay for what c;ame un in the morning-,

The rail- enables settlers to §md their

cream regularly to the factories to be coined into bright sOverigns for the farm by the end of the month.

Would the Mt. Albert people endeavour to prevent this blessing being extended still further North? It is all very well to say that there is plenty of metal for ballast in the North. Well, there may be at such a price that only a mile of railroad could be completed for the cost, of five miles under the present system. It seems the level surface is banded over to the local authorities a,s a free gift when ihe mount is rsmcved.

JN'ow that level surface svill carry aa ruany trees ov houses as the mount would, and could be utilised for making a beautiful park, or could be let out on long leeases for building factories, etc., and the rental would more than pay all the taxes levied upon the Borough.

The mount may be a thing of beauty, but beauty is not satisfying when you are hungry. We, in the1 North, count our blessings one by one, and the railway is the greatest blessing of all, as every backblocker can testisfy when he looks back to the days when he packed his tucker on his own back from Auckland. —I am, etc., Kiwi. Helensville, August 20th., 1916.