Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1942. OPENING UP THE TOWN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 August 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1942. OPENING UP THE TOWN.

VO time should be lost in going' fully into the merits of a proposal submitted to the Masterton Borough Council‘’on Tuesday evening by the Mayor (Mr Jordan) —a proposal that the council should take over the whole of the block bounded by Queen Street, Dixon Street, Church Street and Bannister Street as an open space in the centre of the town. Mr Jordan said that in addition to the acquisition of this area he had in mind the development of the three frontages opposite the block —in Church, Dixon and Bannister streets.

As yet the Mayor has submitted his proposal only in broad outline and much must depend on details, particularly those of cost, but,'it should be easy to agree that the suggested open space, if it can be acquired on reasonable terms, will be a. valuable asset to the town, an aid to its progressive development and an important contribution to the solution of its increasingly serious street traffic problem. The outlay involved in taking over properties no doubt will be considerable, but town improvement schemes of this kind, whdre they are well planned and carried out, create elements of added value and these, in an equitable adjustment, should do a good deal, to lower the net cost of the improvement.

At the broadest view it is clear that if Masterton. in its present location, is to give reasonable scope for the development of motor traffic and to derive maximum benefit from that development, an effective means must be found of enlarging and extending facilities for traffic in the central part of the town. Before the war Queen Street, in frequent and protracted busy periods, was almost hopelessly congested with motor traffic and the position in this respect was steadily and progressively becoming more acute., After the war, particularly if general development is then expedited, as it should be, far-reaching measures of traffic regulation are likely to become necessary. Amongst other things, bypass routes for through traffic will no doubt have to be provided and their use by that class of traffic enforced.

It will remain, however, to meet and cope with great and increasing demands for the passage and accommodation of traffic legitimately using the inner area of the town. The establishment of the open space proposed by the Mayor would contribute appreciably to a solution of the problems here involved, though it is likely that further extensions of facilities for traffic will also have to be made as time goes on. The layout of streets that sufficed in buggy and wagon days can hardly be expected to meet and satisfy the ever-growing demands of mechanised traffic.

As a definite project holding obviously attractive possibilities, Mr Jordan’s proposal should be subjectedAvithout delay to detailed examination. It goes or should go without saying that if the project is found to be desirable and practicable, financially and in other ways, minor difficulties should not be allowed to stand in the way of its being carried into effect. Here and in other places excellent schemes of town improvement have at times been held up by unwarranted opposition, to the great ultimate loss of the community. In this instance it should be a matter only of determining whether an improvement in itself obviously desirable can be carried out within warranted limits of cost.

An otherwise unmixed misfortune—the damage done to business buildings by the recent earthquakes—has simplified to a considerable degree the problem of establishing a central open space. The whole question evidently should be brought to finality before thtre is any question of the permanent repair or. reconstruction, of these damaged, structures,