BRIDGE COMMISSION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 838, 5 December 1929, Page 11

BRIDGE COMMISSION

(Continued from page 1.) AA . H. L. Napier, solicitor and a resident of Devonport, said Ire and his mother paid £SOO a year in rates. He would gladly give a subscription of £SOO to the bridge. * Referring to the evidence given by Mr. Aldridge, Mayor of Devonport, witness said that the statement made by Mr. Aldridge that Devonport did not want a bridge was not representative of the opinion of Devonport residents. He considered that 98 per cent, of the residents wanted a bridge. In reply to the chairman, witness said he and his mother held property valued at £5,000. The Chairman: It will increase in price if a bridge is erected. Witness: The Government valuation is £5,000. If a bridge is built I will sell the land to the Government at that price and it can sell it for what it likes. To Mr. Stanton: If the question of replanning Auckland arose the question of linking the two parts of the city would be the first consideration. Yhe same arguments that are being put up against the harbour bridge were also put up against Grafton Bridge, stated Martin Blampied. He said that today those arguments would be laughed at. STATEMENT ON SITES

Mr. Stanley Jones, an engineer, read a statement he had prepared on the bridge sites, at the resumption of the hearing of evidence this afternoon. He said he had been asked to consider the proposal in 1926 by the Waitemata Bridge Association and no indication had come from shipping interests as to whether the bridge should be further up or down from the No. 2 bridge site —Western Reclamation to Northcote. His statement, compiled in 1926, said there would be little land damage with the bridge; its southern end would be on a dedicated road and the northern end would be in a reserve half a chain from Northcote’s main thoroughfare. The loss of a portion of the reserve would be more than offset by the increase in land values. , The statement went on to detail estimated costs in connection with the other proposals and it also mentioned that the cost estimated for a tunnel was £2,500,000. Answering Mr. McVeagh, witness said the vertical clearance allowed in the bridge being built across Sydney Harbour would be 170 ft. The span ' would be 1,600 ft. (Proceeding.)