ADVANCE, NEW PLYMOUTH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 90, 2 September 1912, Page 6

ADVANCE, NEW PLYMOUTH.

BEGINNING OF NEW ERA. AREA INCREASED FOUR-FOLD. All St. Aubyn woke up this morning i' n the first time as burgesses of the ougli of New Plymouth. Even if they .;■) realise fully the responsibility of the new citizenship thus thrust upon them, few are aware of the difficult and involved nature of the undertaking which has just been brought to completion. A recital of the main factors leading lip to the Greater New Plymouth scheme makes interesting reading. The project was mooted some years ago, but the first practical steps in the matter were taken on April 11, 1910, when the then Mayor (the late Air. G. Tisch) tabled a report to the council in which he recommended the council to set up a representative committee to consider the question of tramways, and also report on the suggested boundaries of the tramways district. His recommendation was adopted, and on May 4 in the same year the committee waited on the council asking it to undertake the whole scheme of tramway construction. The council then passed a resolution that the borough should go in for municipally-owned trains between the Breakwater and Fitzroy. The action of the council was shortly afterwards endorsed by a public meeting of ratepayers. FIRST REAL STEPS. Enter now tlie Greater New Plymouth scheme. Subsequent to the meeting the council resolved that the tramway proposals would not be given effect to until such time as the Greater New Plymouth scheme was an accomplished fact. In order that the trams should be entirely within the borough, it was decided to adopt the suggested tramway area as the area to be comprised as Greater New Plymouth. Since that time the absorption scheme has been kept prominently before the local public, having in a sense become to be regarded as a borough policy measure, both the late Mayor and his successor (Mr. G. W. Browne) having taken a very active interest in the matter. Fitz- ■ I'ot was first tackled, and great diffii culties were at first encountered in what [ wa3 then the old Town Board District in carrying the proposals to fruition. A petition was circulated in favor of the scheme, but a strong counter petition having also been lodged, the Minister of Internal Affairs decided that he could! not give effect to the wishes of the petitioners. Meantime an amendment of the Act had come into force whereby a poll could be taken on the question. The poll was held on August -16, 1912, 244 eleatois declaring for amalgamation and 131 against. In consequence, on Decern-, ber 1 last year Fitzroy became part and parcel of the borough. Ratepayers in that area comprising Vogeltown, Westown and Frankleigh Park were the next { to petition to be taken into the bori ough. A poll was taken on the subject on March 19 last, which was carried by 335 votes to 29, and the area was annexed by the borough on the 31st of the same month. A poll for adding St. Aubyn to the borough was taken on March 26, only to be defeated by 10/ votes to 102. Seeing that there was probably some misunderstanding between the borough and the St. Aubyn Town Board, Mr. H. Okcy, M.P., offered his services as mediator, and largely as the result of his efforts a petition was circulated among the people of Moturoa as well as St. Aubyn, and these two districts are from to-day formally merged in the borough. •MUSHROOM GROWTH. The last cog in the wheels of the bringing down of the tramway scheme "i has thus been finally removed. New Plymouth stretches from the Waiwakaiho to the Breakwater, and includes that favorite exercising ground, Paritutu. At first blush, one does not realise the magnitude of what has been accomplished. Delve into figures and it is i seen that inside of twelve months the ] area of the New Plymouth borough has been increased from 875 acres to 3790 acres—it has more than quadrupled. Fitzroy brought 000 acres, Vogeltown, Frankleigh Park and Westown 1710 acres, St. Aubyn 455 acres, and Moturoa 330 acres. Just in that short time the 1 population of the borough has jurnpad from 5238 to 7538, so that now, outside of the four centres, there are only seven towns (Invercargill, Timaru, Palmerston North, Wanganui, Napier, Gisborne, a no) Nelson, in the order named) possessing more inhabitants than New Plymouth. Fitzroy assisted with 700 persons, Vogeltown, Westown and Frankleigh Park 900,- St. Aubyn GOO and , Moturoa 100 persons. The increased valuation of the borough will also look well in the Municipal lear Book. The figures have jumped from £1,222,748 to £1,638,989, the original area in the borough being rallied at £1,222,748, Fitzroy £132,330, Vogeltown, Westown, and Frankleigh Park £169,185, St. Aubyn £93,726, and Moturoa £21.(100.

To-day marks the beginning of a new era in the history of the borough, and now that Greater New Plymouth is no longer a proposal but a live reality, it behoves the various wards to work amicably together to send- the town along so that Xew Plymouth make take the place it ought to hold amongst the towns of New Zealand. As a final word, it is worthy of note that the refusal of the Minister of Internal Affairs to comply with St. Aubyn's request for delay in bringing the prayer of the petitioners into force brings the long-looked for tramways seven months nearer.