Eyes on Orakei

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 320, 3 April 1928, Page 10

Eyes on Orakei

SECOND SALE OF SECTIONS

New Route to Kohimarama

THE second batch of Orakei the public this evening. They are what an auct assorted lot. not all offering manded by the front ridges. The sale should therefore view by those who bought ' sale. TVHAT are considered to be the best sections on the block, a select bunch of half a dozen or so, will hold chief interest to-night. They look right down the vistas of harbour and channel, and cannot be built out. But other lots in to-night’s offering, consisting of 52 allotments in all. are on reverse slopes that command the classic ridge; of Remuera.

So the auctioneer’s appellation, “a mixed lot,” exactly fits the group. The upset price of the lower sloping sections is unlikely to be more than three or four hundred pounds. Top price for one section at the first Orakei sale was £1,400. This section was a trifle larger than others disposed of, and the price a foot worked out at only £ls, compared with £2O a foot for some of the others. Comparisons of prices will be eagerly noted to-night. BUILDING TO BEGIN Though building on the recentlypurchased sections has not yet begun, there are likely to be houses rising before long, and already two or three architects are preparing plans. In sewerage and drainage there is no obstacle to the erection of houses.

sections will be submitted to oneer would describe as au tlie pre-eminent views cornshow how much was paid for at high prices at the first Drainage was divided into two contracts, the first of which has been completed, covering the sections sold in the first sale, while the second is in process of execution. Water is laid on throughout the whole estate, and roading is well advanced. Coates Avenue, one of the main streets, is being metalled, and the kerb-lines are being formed. Considering the subdivision as a whole, roading is well advanced over half the area, though little has yet been done at the eastern end. While the Government is roading the main block, the trustees of the Coates’s Estate, who owns the old residential property at the crest of Orakei rise, are taking the opportunity to subdivide their area. Roads traversing the Coates block have been designed to fit in with the general plan. Provision of electric light, in addition to water and drainage facilities, is required before the subdivision can meet modern residential standards. In this instance electrical reticulation is not yet effected, but it will follow settlement, according to the usual policy of the power boards, as a matter of course. THE CORNER STORES Other suburban amenities are the familiar “corner stores,” of which there are so many little groups in outer Auckland. In favoured Orakei, however, their distribution is to be definitely restricted. of the sections yet sold, or any *of those to be offered to-night, allows for the erection of any but residential structures, but close at hand, at a crossing on Coates Avenue, space for half a dozen small shops *has been set aside, while a larger shopping area will probably develop at the community centre, a space some distance further away. Total expenditure on the Orakei block will be nearly £700.000, of which a great deal has already been spent. In the Orakei-Tamaki merger the other day the city automatically accepted responsibility for £200,000, while the Government expects to recover the rest of its outlay through the sale of sections. The main city connection, the Waterfront Road, is completed sufficiently to permit the passage of cars, and in another month the'road from Hobson Point to Whakatakataka Bay will link the waterfront road to Kawau and Ngaiwi Streets, which are new roads, and so to the existing main read. The effect of this will be to shorten very substantially the distance between Kohimarama, and the city.