KARORI'S PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 214, 3 June 1908, Page 7

KARORI'S PROGRESS

PUBLIC WORKS. SOMETHING LIKE A RECREATION GROUND. With the City Corporation full' to bursting of works that will raako for the .improve-' * ment of Wellington, some of the smaller municipal bodies are apt to be passed over in the giving of that publicity to its affairs that'each of them so richly deserves. Without any clearly defined object in view, a Dominion reporter forced his presenco on Kami's newest Mayor (Mr. C. Dasent), and was'. rewarded. with somo information which indicates that,, although tho borough has. been snipped' hero and thero to inako a greater -Wellington, its Council is doing its most to make; a better, if not a greator, Karori. ' While Wellington has been hew'ihg down mountains, to obtain a few acres of Hat land for its open-air athletes, Karori has secured for .itself and posterity a fin«' 'park,' consisting of somo 57J acres of undulating • land/.alongside the road about half antilo beyond the Borough Council's office, and not much more than a mile from the present tramway terminus. ' FINE PLAYGROUND AND SWIMMING - . . BATH. .

Of this area sixteen, acres are .to. he levelled off into a huge playground, and half that area' has already been levelled, dfained, and ■ sown with grass. , Not much .work , is, at present, owing to tho new valuation of the borough not haying' been 'supplied by the Government; authorities. This -should have been ready in April, and, according -to the' Mayor, it is .'all-iniportant, as since : tho last valuation :fho "boundaries of Karori borough , hayo undergone a considerable change, consequent upon the city" having acquired Northland and tho Karori reservoir watershed, so reducing the rateable area. As soon as tho now valuation' is available the estimates will bo considered, and it is then proposed .to raise a loan of between ,aritl' £3000 .for tbo-coniplotjion of Karori I Park/'' The remaining "eight' acres of. flat, laud require very'little levelling to malto them-ready for tho roller and the grassseed, which work- will not take a great deal of monoy. .It is also proposed to 1 erect a. grandstand, and ;■ to-, construct a concrete ■swimming-bath. Karori is a long way from the sea, and tho acquisition of that which mil provide: for -a swim should provo a real advantage. •'' 7 . ■ ..

:.-; / tramv?ay- extension. The Council's programme also includes tho .extehsion\,of' the " tramway': to ILarori Park from its ,'present terminus at the j cemetery gates. The main road ■ between those-two 1 points hasvb.een-widened and re-graded at considerable expense; ••• and is ; now • an ideal one, for electric tramway ■' traction, ' Thia ostensioti will open out a big area of excellent. residential land, ''and' is- calculated to increase the. ; value of all land - along the routo (and the rates in ' proportion). Tho enhanced revenue 1 thus acquired should ho augmented by the traffic induced by tho big sports ground near the terminus, and in this -inanticr';the' borough hopes to he more to meet- her' result's 'of the tramways' working for the .year-ended. March' 31 : were quite satisfactory. . The receipts exceeded the working-expenses'by a gtfod''d&lv , ''iiidLtlierj(- I ,was; only' a- shortage of about £375 in the interest and sinking fund acoountß'i. Vhioli ; tho' Mayor considers highly satisfactory, and he looks forward confidently to much- fetter results wlihn tlio borough, is in the; position to exhibit something a deal more, cheerful than a cemetery 1 at-its tramway, terminus. ' " '•