The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1916. CITY IMPROVEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 179, 28 July 1916, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1916. CITY IMPROVEMENTS.

For the cause that lacks assist-no*, For the terong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

A scheme of improvement was placed before the City Council last night that is calculated to make the ratepayer hold his breath for a minute. The Engineer

outlined schemes of road, drainage and other improvements, the cost of which he estimates at over a million, aud the Mayor submitted plans for the extension of the Waitakere storage system to cost about the same sum. When, however, the first shock of surprise and alarm has subsided it will be realised that there is a good deal of wisdom in the elaborate and comprehensive schemes which the Engineer has drawn up. They may be over-ambitious and beyond the means of the community even in normal times, but the policy of looking ahead 'has much to commend it- AuckOand has suffered much by the neglect of lier rulers in the days before the present era of municipal activity. Tt provides some of the worst examples of neglected opportunities of town-planning. Like many oilier colonial

towns, it woa allowed to develop in haphazard fashion, with perhaps especially bad results owing to the eonGguration of the city site. The City Engineer has looke.l far ahead, and made a series of proposals tleeigned to facilitate traffic. Increase the beauty and dignity of the city, and generally make it a better place to ljve- in.-, He-would probably be one of the first to admit that the scheme in anything approaching entirety is quite beyond the means of the city in the near future, but would say that it is his duty to point to the ideal.

Citizens will be -surprised to hear the Engineer already talking about the necessity for new municipal buildings, "as the present suite of municipal ollices will in course of time become quite inadequate for the city's growing requirements.'' It has been thought that the Town Hall building, which is only a few- years old. would suffice, if not for all time. at. least for very many years. Rut 'while the wisdom of his proposal to erect new municipal offices in a city square, which •lie proposes should be made on the old market area, is open to question, we' think the proposal to do something with this site on a large and dignified scale when the leases fall in is admirable. This area, bounded by Queen, Grey, Cook, Albert, and Wellesley Streets, could be made into a square worthy of a great city, and there is no reason why the improvement should not be remunerative as well as dignified and beautiful. This illustrates the value of looking ahead in municipal -works. The area should be treated as a whole, and the Council should have a clear idea of what is to be done before the leases expire. To deal with this block in picce-mcnl fashion would lie to lose one of the finest opportunities of town-planning a eit}' could •have. _

It is not,nece_bary to deal with tho rest of Mr. Bush's proposals in detail. Some of them, such as the waterfront esplanade to Orakei in the east, and the \V"'hau, Creek, in the west, are obviousn far- away. It may be laid down as a I linciplc that in these times, when the financial future is so uncertain, necessary works should be undertaken first and luxuries afterwards, with the proviso that where it is clear that by spending, "say, £IJOOO to-day on a work that will be started in the future, £20,000 can be _aved, the money should be spent. Sanitation and road improvements should come before new roads or parkimprovements. But we should not like to see this principle adhered to fio 'rigidly as..to stop the beautifying of the city, and we welcome the ■ engineer's pro p_lal to plant trees in residential areas.

The future of the water supply alone should make councillors and ratepayers icalisc the need for caution in city finance. The Waitakere scheme has cost a very large sum. The Nihotupu dam is proving a much- more costly work than was anticipated. The Engineer has now prepared estimates for extension of storage works in the ranges. He estimates that to secure a supply f or a population of 490,000 people would cost £950,000, exclusive of the purchase of 10,000 acres of land, while instalments of the work to supply smaller populations would cost £5G0.000 and £370,000 .respectively. , The figures are startling, and the Mayor has acted wisely in ask ing the engineer to report 04 other

'po-sible sources of supply, including lake |Taupo. We doubt 'whether, in view of the distribution of population in New Zealand, and t'» certainty that harbours like the .Bay o. c Islands, Kaipara, Whangarei, and Tanranga will become the outlets for a large export trade, Auckland will have population of half a million people, at least in the next century or so, but it may be found- that a supply for the lesser population mentioned cculd be obtained more cheaply elsewhere than in the Waitakcres. The Taupo scheme would be costly, but some of the cost might be recouped by supply ing towns in the Waikato.