"BRIDGE MUST COME SOONER OR LATER”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 103, 22 July 1927, Page 7

"BRIDGE MUST COME SOONER OR LATER”

SPANNING THE HARBOUR RELIEF FOR UNEMPLOYMENT r J' , 0 bridge—or not to bridge! Auckland’s City Missioner, Rev. Jasper Calder, is a strong supporter of the proposed harbour bridge. He considers that its erection would do much to relieve Auckland unemployment. “With the discovering of the finance I cannot pretend to be concerned. Financing is not a parson’s job,” he says. “But I do know that if it is in any way possible to finance the scheme it would save the city from its present chaotic state of unemployment. There are three or four years’ work—perhaps more—for hundreds of men, and I am convinced that it would be a boon to the city to proceed with the job. “Apart altogether from the financial advantage of more employment, I believe the ultimate good of a harbour bridge can hardly be over-estimated. It has got to come sooner or later. Why not sooner?” asks the missioner. “It would instantly mean the opening up of new suburbs across the water, the gradual development of the Northcote, Birkenhead and Takapuna areas, and would relieve in no small degree the overcrowding of the city residential sites. “If the authorities would pay a little more attention to building a fine big bridge, which could be useful as well as ornamental, it would suit them better than attempting to defile the beauteous waterfront of Hobson Bay by an ugly lot of chimney stacks and smoky factories.”