TAKAPUNA PROGRESSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 162, 10 July 1924, Page 7

TAKAPUNA PROGRESSES.

IMPROVED COMMUNITY SERVICES. COMPREHENSIVE SEWERAGE I SYSTEM. THE FIRST SOD TURNED. The first section of Takapuna's com- | prehensive drainage scheme was commenced this morning, when the Mayor, Mr. J. W. Hayden, turned the initial i sod in the Sunny Beach area. Taka- ■ puna has advanced much quicker than i its municipal facilities, and the need of good roads, fire appliances, water supply, and drainage are matters which the present administration is grappling with in jan earnest manner. I Ratepayers, councillors, and borough I officials assembled at the bottom of Earnoch Road, where the work is being commenced, when the Mayor turned the first of many millions of sods involved in the work. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and with the long stretches of Takapuna Beach, the foreground lapped by the gentle waters of the Waitemata, it was fitting that Mr. Hnvden should remind his audience that this work was for the advancement of j a beautiful borough, one of the finest I marine residential areas in the Do- | minion. The urgent necessity of the installation of an up-to-date sewerage system, he said, had occupied the attention of the present and previous councils, and he appreciated his privilege, as present Mayor, of officially starting the undertaking. The borough, he added, was fortunate in having Mr. A. Stinger to supervise fhe work, for his credentials in this connection were among the highest in the Dominion. The work being commenced, ho said, was known as the Sunny Beach area, and w-ould embrace 200 acres serving i the area from Sunny Beach to Clifton ! Road, and inland to the Takapuna | school. The total length of reticulation in the area was 6-J miles, and the estimated cost of the work £37,000. This was the most densely populated part of the borough, -and it was hoped that the work would be finished this summer. Dealing with the other portion of the complete scheme, Mr. Hayden said that the Bayswater section • would be commenced in about six weeks. The Milford area would be the last, the i whole work being estimated to cost £101,000. I Mr. Hayden hoped that good service ' would be given for the expenditure of • this big sum, and assured the ratepayers ; that there would be no cause to regret 1 giving the council loyal support. Mr. A M. Gould, the previous Mayor, said he hoped that the scheme would be carried to an extremely successful conclusion, as he felt sure it would. On behalf of the office staff, he presented the Mayor with a" miniature gold spade , to mark the occasion. "Gobd water supply and good drainage spell good health," said the Mayor of Devonport. The cost was no consideration when weighed with the advantages gained. The time would come ■ 1 when the two boroughs should amalga.- ---| mate, and whether Devonport annexed ; Takapuna, or Takapuna Devonport, did 1 not matter, but he thought the sooner it ' happened the better it would make for ■ efficiency and economy of administra--1 j tion. | Mr. W. Bloomfield, an ex-Mayor, con- ' gratulated Mr. Hayden on raising the money to finance the scheme, which ' I had been initiated during his period, but \ | held up by lack of money. The prej vious Mayors were good plodders, but ' I the present was a real racehorse. I The Mayor then turned the first sod, ' amidst cheers, and a happy ceremony j ' terminated with morning tea at "Mon . , Desir."