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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5388, 4 July 1878, Page 2

The trustees of the Hutt Park Racecourse Reserve, judging from what transpired at the meeting held yesterday, of which a report will be found in another place, appear so far to have been fairly successful in the management of the property placed in their care. They hnveasmall balance in hand, and expect to be able shortly to pay off a mortgage of £230, which appears to be the only encumbrance on the estate. There is now a tolerably good roadto the course, and the trustees entertain sanguine expectations that a branch railway will be made to it from Petone. The cost of this undertaking is estimated in round numbers at £3OOO. The supporters of the undertaking calculate that the passenger traffic on race days alone would pay a fair interest on that amount, and something over. From an engineering point of view there are no difficulties whatever to be encountered in the construction of this line. The only difficulty is the financial one of the cost of a bridge over the Hutt River. If the trustees of the property, the Jockey Club, and the general public unite together in the matter, there can be no doubt, especially if a probable subsidy from the Government be also taken into a'count, that the work can bo. easily accomplished, and there appears every probability of its proving ultimately a remunerative undertaking. With the improvements that have been made from time to time, Wellington can now boast of a very fair racecourse, but it it could be reached by railway a much larger number of visitors would be drawn to it on race days than at present, and if this end can be accomplished, ns it is stated it can be, for £3OOO, it seems a pity that it should not be obtained. Some of the land in the vicinity of the course is well adapted for building sites, and this extension of the railway would undoubtedly tend to the pro-perty-owners cutting up their sections into smaller allotments, and offering them to public competition, with mutual advantage to ‘both vendors and purchasers, as has been done in so many instances lately with respect to suburban properties.