CITY STATUS SOON ?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 309, 31 December 1938, Page 6

CITY STATUS SOON ?

HAMILTON'S PROGRESS MAJOR WORKS IN BOROUGH. YEAR'S BUILDING ACTIVITY. (From Our Own CorrrfpondM.'t.) HAMILTON, Friday. For Hamilton 1938 has been a year of outstanding progress, bringing closer the time when the hub of the Waikato will be proclaimed of city status. Besides large works being prepared or pursued in tho town by the Borough Council many important projects have !>cen mooted, including the improvement of the. railways facilities at Frankton Junction and Hamilton (involving a new station at Frankton) and the removal of Garden Place Hill, in the centre of the town. Work on eliminating the hill will begin in a week or two and when the area is levelled an ideal civic and chopping centre will be available. But of, ftill greater importance will be the provision of ample alternative traffic routes) and flic, relief of the existing congestion in Victoria Street. Amalgamation of tho two main secondary schools in the district, with a new school for boys at Hamilton Fast nnd a hostel for girls on the present Higli School site, together with new primary schools for Hamilton West and Hamilton Fast, are some, of the educational proposals in the near future which have been approved. Another large scheme early in the new year will be the proposal to raise £154.000 for street improvements, sewer extensions and the erection of conveniences. Steps will also be taken soon bv the council to prepare the Hayes Paddock site, Hamilton East, for a model garden suburb on which State houses will be built. The council has already been granted £13,000 to bring the area up to the same standard as other parts of the borough. In common with most towns in the Dominion, Hamilton has suffered from an acute housing shortage which has been barely affected by private building and State housing during the year. There are still hundreds of families living in rooms and makeshift dwellings or with friends and relatives. Although the final building figures for 1938 are not yet available, over 110 new .houses have been erected, while permits for work well in excess of £230,000 have been issued by the council. There has also been great expansion and modernisation of the business area. Two of the largest buildings at a forward stage are the new post office and the new Commercial Hotel. Soon Hamilton should have a fine Town Hall, the council having decided to apply for sanction for a poll on the question of raising £35,000 for a building on the Garden Place site. With new homes reaching out into the rural areas in almost every direction and the business area constantly developing, Hamilton, despite its proximity to Auckland, gives every promise of becoming the largest inland city in the Dominion.