Trams and Population

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 110, 30 July 1927, Page 8

Trams and Population

Outlying Suburbs Interested PROPOSALS to extend the tramway system draw attention to the development of Auckland’s outer suburbs. Population has steadily increased in the Mount Albert and Mount Roskill districts, where closely-settled areas are now served only by motor-buses, which act as feeders to the trams.

T}LANS to be executed, if the A £500,000 tramways loan is carried, include the extension ji the Mount Eden, Dominion Road and Edendale tramlines to Mount Albert Road.

The proposal is an answer to the trend of recent development. Population on the flat between Mount Eden and Mount Albert has increased phe-

nomenally in the last few years. Viewed from Mount Eden, its outer fringe was formerly semi-suburban farm land. Now it is all patterned with warmly-coloured roof-tops. Settlement has pushed its way across country and the tramway system must keep pace with the development. CITIES IN THE SUBURBS

Mount Eden Borough now has a population greater than that of any provincial town save Wanganui and Invercargill. Mount Albert is equally populous.

The terminus of each of the outward thrusting tram routes —Mount Eden, | Dominion Road and Edendale —is now a busy commercial centre. Dominion i Road already seems to have miles I of shops and Edendale has an im--1 portant acquisition —a new picture i theatre. ! Extension of tramway systems is | always the preliminary to suburban I development. Therefore, if the tram- ! way loan is carried on August 17 further increases of population may be i expected along Mount Albert Road. | Bus services in the past have I opened the way to expansion at Mount | Roskill and Edendale, but tram services, generally more dependable, should do a great deal more. In the circumstances it is easy to understand the interest with which residents of these parts are following the tramway loan controversy. The local bodies concerned in suburban government of the territories feel that the issues at stake in the loan poll are vital to their progress. -Mount Roskill has long aspired to have a tramway circuit from Dominion Road, along Mount Albert Road, either to the Three Kings Road or to the Manukau Road. So far it has received from the City Council no definite assurance that such a project is contemplated—though it would appear to be the logical sequel to later development — and therefore it is undecided about allowing for possible track-laying when it plans permanent paving for Mount Albert Road. SUBURBAN INVASION How far the Mount Roskill district is concerned in the tramway extension may be judged from its recent development. In 1926 building permits to the value of £182,570 were issued, and in the previous year the mark was reached. On these figures meteoric expansion could be expected if the trams ran all the way to Mount Albert Road.’ Next year the Mount Roskill Road Board will celebrate its diamond jubilee. Among the original 25 ratepayers were property owners —Alfred Buckland, Joseph May, A. Dornwell. J. Hayr, T. D. Cleghorn and W. J Connolly—and the first meetings were held in Mr. Dornwell’s cow shed. For generations Mount Roskill retained its rural atmosphere, but now the suburban flavour rules, and only an occasional lichen-covered wall, built from the scoria rocks which at first ! littered the fields, marks the divisions | in the original farm holdings.