A MODEL MUNICIPALITY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10985, 7 June 1901, Page 4

A MODEL MUNICIPALITY.

At a time -when civic life in New Zealand seems at length to be awakening from the lcmg torpor-~-wh*n *a extended franchise, keen-fought elections, ambitious schemes : for city improvement, and patient labours of "Beautifying Societies" are in this place and that giving proofs of revivified interest, ; it may not be amiss to draw attention to the admirable example of enlightened municipal progress afforded by a- modest little town in the North Island. We mean Napier. Nature has done mdbh for this pretty little town, situated on the straggling .hill, and tapering shingle-spit, which Cook mistook for an island. Standing on BUif| Hill on a. sunny day—and most of its days «re sunny—there atretch to north and west of you the rolling uplands of Petane, and the grass-clad reaches of Green Meadows; to the east the blue waters of the Bay, not always pacific, with, its shimmering line ef curving share; to the south the silver thread of the Tutaekuri winds among ths greens and browns of the sedge-grown lagcon. On the ppurs around you perch the villas of the,townsfolk, not without architectural graces of their own; below you, on the shinele-spit, are the shops and cottages which, in spits of the miserably narrow streets, form a group less dingy and j commonplace than tha average of New Zea- | land towns. Of these advantages the Napier foik have not been slow to make the best use. Along ths shore of the bay they have built a retaining wall of concrete, and behind its protection stretches the magnificent "Marine Parade," of several miles in length. For twenty years they have experimented in planting it, "Gums" and "Pinus Insignis, , ' English trees and native shrubs, were tried, planting after planting, and resulted in failure. But they never gave in; and 1 now, after 3'ears of experiment, they have succeeded.in fringing the Marine Parade for nearly two miles of its length with Norfolk pines, which seem hardy enough to thrive in the briny spray with which the sea breezes so liberally sprinkle them. Twenty years ago' a huge swamp, only a few chains from the main thoroughfares, spread smells and flies, and ferer .through the town. This has all beenMjeclaimed and 'built upon, and where as boj's th\%y paddled in their skiffs and fished for eels, now walk with their children under anafenue of majestic bluegums, which have reached forty to fifty feet in height, in half thwt number of years. The great lagoon to" the wteefc of the town is now being won from a swanstf>y "waste of weeds— not by the labour of shovels and pickaxes, but by the aid of nature—thfe Tutaelsuri has been "harnessed" to the worn of reclamation, and the lagoon is so rapidw silting up that in a few years more it will\give hundreds of acres of dairy-lands to Napier itself is a model of neatness. \ The, main street* are as clean as a tennis couSftTfce squares are laid out in trim , walks, and though it in quite a small place, I ifc, has probably more public seats, in its ! squares, on the parade, and on the hill, than the largest town in the colony. It might easily be inferred "by Radical reformers, that, all this progress is the result of change and J agitation. Oft the contrary, from the point of view of the Radical, Napier would probably be considered hopelessly! ante-dilu-yiah. The Mayor, who has just retired, occupied the office for fourteen years in supcession, and only once, if we remember rightly, had anyone the temerity to oppose him, fine-crusted old "Tory" though he was. i Even now, when a contest for the Mayoralty led to.great excitement and vigorous enrollment under the extended franchise, and when as many as twenty-five candidates aspired to municipal honours, only two of the twelve Councillors returned were new men. For Napier, at least, "new blood" has little attraction,, dtoubtless because the "old blood," supported by a vigorous public opinion, has managed the affairs of the town in so enlightened and progressive a spirit.