BRIGHTER DEVONPORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 272, 16 November 1929, Page 11

BRIGHTER DEVONPORT.

COMMUNITY LIGHTING SCHEME BUSINESSMEN'S ENTERPRISE. '• SWITCHING-ON CEREMONY. i " Last night at Devonport there was instituted a community lighting scheme for the business area of the borough, whereby all the shops in Road add to the illumination of the street by a uniform system of verandah lights. This movement was inaugurated by the Waitemata Chamber of Commerce and carried to a successful conclusion with the co-operation of the Waitemata Power Board. Shopkeepers are responsiblo individually for the current U3ed, and the lights, which will be switched on from sunset until 11 p.m., are operated by a master switch in the Power Board's premises. This scheme has meant the addition of nearly 50 lights to the previous illumination of Devonport's business centre. To commemorate the occasion a switching-oil ceremony took place last evening outside the Power Board's offices before a crowd of several hundred people to the accompaniment of speeches, gailyflying bunting and music from the Devonport United Band. , Mr. T. Walsh, chairman of the Waitemata Chamber of Commerce, presided, and outlined the development of the proposal to improve the illumination of Devonport's business street as a definite proof of the progress of the borough. Speeches were also made by Messrs. S. L. Kennings, G. Trevitliick, W. O. Marks and A. E. Greenslade (Mayor of Northcote), representing the Waitemata Power Board. All these speakers expressed their pleasure at the installation. The switching-on ceremony was performed by Mr. E. Aldridge, Mayor of Devonport. "To-night there has been lit another, torch on Devonport's pathway of progress," said the speaker. He referred to the steady progress made by the borough, from "the days when a few flickering oil lamps lit the waterfront, through its forty years of gas illumination and fifteen years of electricity, to the present effective lighting by 415 electric lamps. By the recent lighting improvements on the traffic square through the installation of several handsome 1000 candle-power light standards,

the whole of the borough's lighting rate was completely absorbed, and Devonport's street lighting now cost £2312 per annum. The borough now had a fair claim to be numbered among the brightest of Auckland's suburbs, and he suggested as a slogan for all concerned, in recognition of the enterprise of Devonport's business men, that they should "boost the business of the best, bonniest and brightest of the boroughs." He switched on the lights to the accompaniment of three cheers for all who had co-operated in the improvement to Devonport's main thoroughfare. The main street was afterwards thronged by the crowd, and general appreciation of the improvement was expressed.