MODERNISING HOWICK.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 241, 11 October 1929, Page 5

MODERNISING HOWICK.

CONCRETING MAIN ROAD.

COMPLETE WATER SUPPLY.

BOARD TO RAISE LOAN OF £20,000.

A public meeting held in Ho wick last evening unanimously approved the Town Board's proposals to borrow £20,536 for concreting the main road and for bringing in a water supply. Mr. J. Crawford, chairman of the board, who presided, explained the proposals. The road would start at the Scotch Church, and the first stretch to Mclnnes , corner would cost £4088, on which the Government subsidy would be £3 for £1. The stretch from Mclnnes corner to the school would cost f5300, on which the subsidy would be £ for £ on the cost of a bitumen road, which was considered adequate by the Highways Board. Bitumen roads were a failure round Auckland, and the Road Board had decided upon concrete. The total subsidy worked out at 32/ or 33/ in the £, and the district would be foolish not to accept such an offer. Footpaths would cost £1025, and that part of the programme was a necessary corollary of the concreting of the highway. Mr. Crawford laid stress on the necessity for a water supply, which he said would tend to decrease insurance premiums, lower the cost of prospective homes £15 to £30, eliminate the cost of maintaining tanks and remove the fear of water shortage in dry seasons. The scheme would cost £9340. The amount of rates necessitated by raising money for these essentials to the progress of the district would be 2Jd in the £, which, added to the present rate of 1 7-8 d in the £, would make a total rate of 4d in the £. The water rate would not be collected, and, judging from the experience of Mount Wellington, Papatoetoe and Manurewa, not more than 50 per cent of the concrete road rate would be collected, so that the total rate in Howick would be 2 25-40 of a penny in the £, or merely 30-40 of a penny more than the present rate. So that for an additional |d in the £ the people of Howiek were offered all 'the necessary conveniences of a modern model township. Mr. A. Greville Walker, engineer to the board, explained that the water supply would be adequate for a population of 2000. The reservoir would be on. Stockade Hill. There would be a 6-inch pipe in the main street, and 4-inch in side streets, with a 2-inch pipe in such streets as did not warrant the larger pipes. Mr. J- T. Gill thought the motor tax should supply the whole cost of the roads. The farmer paid once through his. car and again through his land. The car should be taxed more and the land less. The chairman said that was too big a question for him, and should be referred to Sir Joseph Ward. Mr. Ironsides wished to know if bitumen shoulders had been provided for in the estimate?. The engineer said provision had been made. Mr. George Church wanted to know whether the water supply was going round CockTe Bay. The engineer replied that a 4-inch main had been provided and a 2-inch to the boundary, 1 The Town Board Clerk (Mr. Bagnall), in answer to a.'question, said that last year the maintenance on the highway was £593. The Highways Board estimated that every year there was a loss of two inches of metal on a macadamised road. Eeplying to Mr. Church, the chairman said the Town Board was definitely for a concrete road, and no other surface would be entertained. At the close of a very satisfactory meeting the board's loan, proposals for road and water were unanimously adopted on the motion of Mr. R. P. Rishworth.