LYTTELTON BOROUGH EXTENSION.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14583, 6 February 1913, Page 4

LYTTELTON BOROUGH EXTENSION.

DIAMOND HARBOUR SETTLE-

MENT.

LOAN PROPOSAL CARRIED.

[ Unusually keen interest centred in | the poll which was taken in Lyttelton. yesterday on the proposal to raiso a, loan of £13,000 for the purchase and development of the Diamond Harbour Estate of 350 acres situated on tho south side of the harbour nearly opposite the port, for the purposes of a model township authorised under the Lyttelton Borough. Extension Act, 1911. The question had been very keenly debated during th© past few d/.y.s, but even those most interested in'tne proposal scarcely anticipated so heavy a -\ote as was recorded yesterday. The poll closed at 7 p.m., and tho returning officer, Mr L. A. Stringer, i was ab.e to announce the result half-an-hour later. The figures showed that the poll had been a heavy one, 478 ratepayers, out of about 700, having voted.* Tr.c figures showed that the proposal had been carried by a majority of 34 votes, the voting being as follows: — For tho Proposal ... 200 Against Ihe Proposal ... 21G Informal ... ••• 12 Total ... — 478 A fairly large crowd was present when the" poll was declared, and the supporters "of the scheme were, naturally, grcativ elated at the result. tile Mayor of Lyttelton (Mr M. J. Miller) said he was very thankful that the ratepayers had turned out :n such strong force to record their votes, tho noil of 47S votes bciti£ most satisfactory to all those interested in the p:opo-"al. Personally, ho was more than pleased with the result, and he regarded the fact that the proposal had been carried as an important turning in the history of Lyttelton. Not only womd the establishment of the Diamond Harbour settlement heip Lytteiton forward, but it would heip to satisfy Canterbury that the port of Lyttelton was sufficient for tho _ requirements of the province, and that the people had the fullest confidence in their town. It would also be «a good tiling from tho point of view of the tourists, who, arriving in the gateway of the province and seeing a flourishing sc-tt't.'imnt wilh beautiful homes on tie sunny slopes of the south side of tho harbour, would gain a far better impression of tho piaco than at present. The contest for and against the lv.-oporal had been a good and kern one, and he hoped that, now the qur-stion was settled, all would join and work hand in hand for the suc-cr-cs of the scheme. In a few weeks he would probably bo stepping out of office a.i Mayor of Lyttelton. but he intended, whether elected as a councillor or not. to always work in the interests of Lytt-'lton. (Appl-iusra).

Mr 0. Laurenson, M.P., said that the poll just declared had been one of the most remarkablo ever taken in New Zealand. On a loan proposal it was generally cons'derod satisfactory when a quarter of the voters went to the poll, bu'fc in t'Vis ease, out of a total of less than 800 ratepayers, nearly 500 people bad recorded their votes, an unusually largo proportion for such a proposal, as it represented nearly three-quarters rf the total number on tho roll. He felt that tho people of Lyttelton could tf;ko credit that t*Vc pronosal had been carried in no half-hearted manner, and ho hopL'd that from now on, all feeling wou'd bo sunk, and that the people v.-culd work whole-heartedly to ensure trie complete success of the scheme. .Matters were now at a crisis in the development of Lvttelton and the port. Only that day tho Harbour Board had received an application from one of tho largest firms in Dunedin for a site in Lyttelton for a big grain store. The difficulty at present was to know where to put it, but the Board had in hand the work of reclaiming an area of seventy acres, which would in pood time bo an important addition to the available fiat land in the borough, and now the ratepayers had carried a proposal wihich would have the effect of adding '1-50 acres of land on tho sunny slopes of the south side of the harbour to the borough. Within twelve months the work of electrifying tihe tunnel would be put in hand, and, when completed, it was proposed to run a twenty-minutes' electric train service on the overhead trolley system, working two cars at a time, which would bring Lyttelton within twenty minutes of Cathedral square. He had been assured by Mr Parry, hVe Government Electrical Engineer, that i";e electric service would be in full working order within a rcasonablo time, and ho proposed to run goods traffic and the throughexpresses from the South by means of powerful electric locomotives. Now that tjio ratepayers of Lyttelton had had tho gcod senso to vote for the extension of tho borough, he predicted one of tho greatest "spurts of progress in its history. Ho hoped that the Council would be able to offer erood building sites at Diamond Harbour to the people at prices mVich would be an inducement to them to settle across the harbour, and so keep the population on tho increase in the borough. In conclusion, ho hoped that tih_> result of the poll would leave no bitterness in the "minds of those who had voted against the proposal, and that all would unite and work for bYe success of the Lyttelton borough extension scheme. (Applause.) A* vote of thanks to tho Town Clerk (Mr L. A. Stringer), who had acted as returning officer, was carried, and cheers were given for tho Mayor and Mr Laurenson.