FOSTERING DEVELOPMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1921, Page 4

FOSTERING DEVELOPMENT.

It is to be hoped the New Plymouth Borough Council will not stand in the way of the Vacuum Oil Company—or any other company—from establishing a store in the town. The application was considered by the council on Monday evening, when it was decided to obtain the opinion of the Fire Superintendent on the proposal before conGng to a decision. The site mention >l— Molesworth and Gill Streets — is not what may be described as the middle nor a thickly populated part of the town. Benzine stores may be found in nearly all the bigger seaport towns and cities, generally just outside the thickly populated or business parts, and they do not give the public any cause for anxiety. To say that such a building as that contemplated would be a menace to the rest of the town is to ignore the conditions that obtain elsewhere and the safeguards that very properly are insisted upon in the construction of these stores. The council, as the custodians for the town, should welcome and encourage enterprise of 1 this kind. New Plymouth, with its growing sea-borne traffic, is becoming more and more of a distributing centre, and it is good to see such firms as the Vacuum Co. seeking to erect a large building in the town in order to facilitate the distribution of its ,oils. When so much has been done to foster the trade of the port end the town, and when the results are beginning to be realised, it would be a thousand pities to put any obstacles in the way. Rather should the council’s policy be to help and facilitate the company to build the store, insisting, of course, that due provision is made for safeguarding the interests of the public, aa no doubt the company would do of its own volition and in its own interests.