THIS SYDNEY!

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 246, 17 October 1929, Page 10

THIS SYDNEY!

MONSTROUS GROWTH.

SECOND ONLY TO LONDON.

TWO MILLION POPULATION IN 1939,

(By the "StarV Special Representative.) SYDNEY, October 11. This Sydney—how it grows! Behind the curtain of its colourful happenings—its gaiety, its recreation, its splendour, its extravagance, ite follies, its poverty, its misery and its crime—beneath all its spectaeularism, the city continues to grow in size and wealth, an opulent monster waxing fat despite ite infesting parasites, the heart of it pulsating soundly to the business of life. I have been hearing things about Sydney, this melting port of the endless resources of a vast State. The very

facts of its progress are more amazing than the most sensational of its many amazing happenings. Not yet half way through the second century of its existence, and notwithstanding its immense distance from the Old World, it already ranks in size as second only to London in the white citiee of the British Empire. Not even one of the great cities of America has grown so quickly to commensurate importance. Unvisioned Progress. Sydney's population to-day ie just on 1,400,000. Fifty years ago it wiis con siderably less than that of Auckland to-day ; to be exact, it was only 139,000. Who, but 50 years ago, visualised the million and a half of 1929?- In those days one could buy land practically in the heart of the city for a price that owners of sections 20 miles from the G.P.O. would eniff at now. And there is no halt in this growth. Careful compilations by the N.S.W. Government Statistician, by the City Health Officer, Dr. Purdie, and by the water eupply authorities estimate that in another ten years the population will have reached 2,000,000. What other city is there that has ehown 1J millions of population after only 150 years of existence? During the last five years the value of new buildings erected in Sydney -totalled £05,517,058. These included structures of every description, but dwellings greatly predominated. Building costs in Sydney—even although almost all dwellings are of brick—arc far lower than in New Zealand. The average cost of homes during the period mentioned was £978. Imagine, then, the number of new homes constructed and the hundreds of thousands of people housed. 100,000 Homes in Ten Years. Since war over 100,000 new homes have been erected. Allowing each only a 40ft frontage, placed side by side they would stretch from Sydney to Melbourne, and 200 miles beyond that. In the last twelve months for whioh figures are available, £11,000,000 was spent on suburban buildings, 00 per cent of which were houses or flats, pro* viding homes, it is estimated, for over 14,000 families. The city is spreading out and out, but fast electric trains are annihilating distance, and areas considered far distant are now regarded as convenient suburbs.

This is a time of financial stress and considerable unemployment, yet business men are demonstrating every confidence in the future. They are in close touch with the trend of affairs, and they are investing millions in great city buildings. In every direction enormous piles are growing skyward—huge retail stores, warehouses, factories, theatres—

all needed to deal with the requirements of the rapidly growing population. The port authorities are facing millions of pounds' expenditure, upon them by the increasing 1 demand for wharf accommodation. Last year nearly 9000 vessels entered the port of Sydney. Seven Trains a Minute. On the Harbour Bridge expenditure will total £8,000,000 or more, but it is considered that every pound will have been well spent, for increased land values in the northern suburbs will more than equal the coat immediately. There has been drawn up a roading scheme for arterial roads of the southern, western and northern highways which will absorb £17,000,000, of which £1,000,000 was spent . last year, and

there is new road construction in every suburb and shire. Motor car and truck registrations number just on 200,000.

Electric trains, cutting the time of steam travelling in half, are causing new suburbs to spring up like mushrooms. Central Station has been equipped to deal with 420 trains an hour—or seven trains a minute. Think of it! No other railway station on earth equals this record. Five great underground stations, costing £3,000,000, and the great overhead station at Circular Quay, to cost another £1.000,000, are /to help deal with the problem of transport; millions of pounds are being expended on new suburban lines westward, and £2,000,000 has been earmarked for the underground railway to the eastern suburbs. Several of' the newer suburbs have doubled their population and trebled their values in seven years, one, Canterbury, having built 7000 dwellings and added 30,000 residents in that period. In 1931 men will stand on the completed £8,000,000 Harbour Bridge and survey the city which has attained to such gigantic growth, with the ages still ahead. Well may they murmur, when its realisation bursts upon them: "This Sydney-—how it grows!"