CONCRETE HIGHWAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 745, 19 August 1929, Page 16

CONCRETE HIGHWAY

TITIRANGI ROAD WORKS PROPOSED LOAN DETAILS Reconstruction and paving of the main highway between Titirangi anil New Lynn, and improvement of the four other roads in the Titirangi Riding of the Waitemata County are to be undertaJcen under the proposed loan of £13,000, on which a poll of ratepayers is to be taken on August 28. Financial aspects of the scheme were explained at a large meeting of Titirangi ratepayers on Saturday evening by the riding member, Mr. W. A. .Bishop, and the county engineer, Mr. A. W. Murray. Appealing for ratepayers’ support for the proposal at the poll, Mr. Bishop stated that of the proposed loan of £13,000, the riding would be required to find £6,500.

If tlje loan was carried, subsidies would be available from the Government qn two principal works, explained Mr. Murray. The larger subsidy would be for £19,500 on a £3 for £1 basis from the Main Highways Board for construction of the Titt-rangi-New Lynn Road in concrete. The money would be available in the second year of a six-year programme, tinder which it had been proposed that this highway should be included in the sixth year’s works. If the Highways Board’s offer was not accepted, he said, it would be probably withdrawn and deferred indefinitely. In the case of the Titirangi-New Lynn route, the Highways' Board intended provided 75 per cent, of the cost of the work compared with 40 per cent, allowed to the lo.cal bodies which recently carried out work on the Great South Road. Mr. Murray added that £4,200 would be available from the Public Works Department and the City Council for improvement n f Hu'a Road. Thus for the loan of £13,000 it was proposed to raise, works of a total value of £36.700 would be carried ou,t. The security rate for the lean was 1 l-8d in the £l, but it might not be necessary to collect the whole of this. The present bad state of Titirangi’s roads was due to tho fact that the riding had not borrowed so extensively as other ridings in the past. He warned the ratepayers that if tile loan was not carried the general rate would probably have to be substantially raised next year, and ratepavers would have to pay a rate equivalent to the rate of the proposed loaa and would have none of the benefits.

A vote of thanks and appreciation of his services as engineer was accorded Mr. Murray.