Treasure Island.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19667, 10 July 1929, Page 10

Treasure Island.

Only a few days ago the Mayor announced that the Council must acquire a strip of land from the Bank of Xew Zealand in order to widen the roadAvay leading into the Square and so relieve the press of traffic at that very busy spot. The strip in question would have cost many thousands to acquire some years ago, and it is not likely that the value has depreciated since. It would not be proper to say what the approximate value is to-day, but everybody knows that it is a total which even in thousands could not be counted on the fingers of both hands. Such an outlay, to justify itself, would have to provide a corresponding benefit, or the money would be wasted, and the benefit that most citizens expected to reap from that very large expense was a substantial addition to the width of the roadway. In this it would appear they were in error. The Council now proposes to utilise part of the width for building up an island for pedestrians and so to contract still further what it has stoutly claimed to be an unduly contracted traffic way. In other words the Bank strip would appear to be wanted, not to ease street traffic, but to provide a place for an island, which is of course quite absurd. If a crossing for pedestrians is to be maintained at the Bank corner, and there is no reason why it should not be, then that crossing can be regulated with as much safety and efficiency as would be possible with the doubtful advantage of an intervening island. If by widening the roadway at that corner an island is made necessary, then the same result would bo achieved by eliminating the widening strip and eliminating the island, with of course this very weighty difference, that the City would be saved all those thousands of pounds.