THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1909. STREET WIDENING IN THE BOROUGH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3092, 14 January 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1909. STREET WIDENING IN THE BOROUGH.

The most important step in the way of street widening in the Borough, undertaken by the Borough Council, for some considerable time, has just been consummated—namely, the increasing of the width of Kuripuni Street from half a chain to a chain. Every property owner in this long

neglected thoroughfare must feci intense gratification at the transformation effected by the widening, and those who generously gave the necessary land, and assisted the Council to carry out this important work, will never regret their public spirited action, as the street, now looks so vastly superior to the old, countrified, dangerously narrow lane it previously was. that property values in the street must undoubtedly be considerably enhanced. The completion of the improvement of Kuripuni Street causes the question to arise, ot when the Council intends to bring to finality work of a similar nature necessary elsewhere in.the Borough. We referred some time ago to the opportunity which seemed to be at hand to widen the remaining narrow strips of Dixon Street, by the expenditure on it of the balance of the loan money which would not be required for Park Street. The surplus amount then reported as likely to be available from Park Street was several hundreds of pounds, and we were assured by one who is in a position to judge that this amount would not only be sufficient to widen the balance of Dixon Street, but probably complete the widening operations in Villa Street. In this latter street, property holders are —and with some justication—refusing to give the land required by the Council without compensation, because the properties will be decreased in value through the smallness of the sections. The Borough Engineer, in a report, proposed to expend the Park Street balance in completing 1 tar-macadam-ising operations in Queen Street, and whether the Council intends to adopt this suggestion, or has already diverted all or any of the money to purposes other than road-widening, is a question which we should like to have answered. The possibility of the Government shortly using the Dixon Street site for a new Courthouse, the erection of the Technical School, and the fact that Dixon Street is an arterial roadway very greatly used, are matters which make it imperative for the Council to give early attention to the widening of the street. The business of the Borough Council is now practically all transacted in camera, the Works Committee meetings being closed to the Press, and whether t! e Council is, or has, been diverting money from one class of worK to another, under the loan schedule, is a matter which only Councillors themselves can say. Occasional protests have been heard in open Council that certain streets were receiving an undue share of th: loan money as allocated under the schedule drawn up by the Council, when it formulated the loin proposals, and we are assured by certain Councillors that at the Works Committee meetings protests of a similar kind are made in plenty, but without avail. On tha face of it, the expending of money raised for street widening in the tarmacadamising of an already wellmetalled road, when there are important streets in the heart of the Borough still dangerously narrow, id a proceeding with little to commend it. The cost of tar-macadam-ising is not likely to increase at such a ratio in proportion to the increase of property values that the Borough Council should push on the work proposed in Queen Street at the expense ,of the widening of Dixon Street. especially when such a unique opportunity offers to accomplish the latter, and the former is, or should be, properly a maintenance work.