THE TUNNEL PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1061, 25 February 1911, Page 10

THE TUNNEL PROBLEM.

.VIEWINC APPROACHES.' . A PARTY OF INSPECTION, TJio problem of piercing Mount Victoria in a moro effectual way than has yet been dono was investigated on tho spot last evening by a party of city and suburban representatives. It ineluded tho Mayor (Mr. T.'M. Wilford), Councillors Frost, Thompson, Trevor, Carmichael, and Barber, Sir. Leigh Hunt (president of tho Hataitai Ratepayers' Association) and several other residents of that suburb. En routo to a point of vantage on the Town Belt above Rixon Grovo tho expedition aroused a certain, amount of curiosity in residents of tbo intervening streets through which it passed. Heads wero poked out of windows as the Mayor and party passed along. ' ■ No engineer accompanied tjio party and as it progressed its members wandered, fancy free, over .'various aspects of the.problem of building an approach' on easy gradients to a new ttanel through tho hill. Arrived at the point of vantage mentioned above'the party settled down to sorious business.. The spot chosen was about fifty yards south of the present tunnel entrance'and. immediatelyoverlooking, Rixon,' .Grovel 1 The boundary land ot tho Town Belt, beginning at an altitude of s<?me twenty feet abovo Rixon, Grove, runs back on an easy gradient for a couple of chains to tho point where it joins tho steeper slopes of, l Mount Victoria. The proposal of the Hataitai Ratepayers' Association is to make a cutting about two chains long beginning at the . end of Rixon Grove and. from its further end pierce Mount Victoria with a tunnel about 16 chains long. The projected tunnel, would start on a level about 25 feet lower, than that now in use. Looking from the edge of the Belt, a line of approach on easy (gradients can be easily discerned. Thero is such a line from Brougham Street by way of Queen Street and Rixon .Grove. To make it' available, property on tho cor'ner of Queen Street and Austin ;Street would: have' to be cut away'and , added: to tho street spaco and'the present tortuous lines of Rixon Grovo would 'have to be widened and straightened. It did not,look,a very tremendous undertaking to men whose (spirits, had been 'brightened by a little climbing. "It could be done," was the verdict of several members of the party and perhaps because the verdict did not commit anyone to anything it was received with general favour. Its appetite whetted by achievement, tho party ; turned 1 aside to fresh conquests. Someone mentioned "the other side" and a bold spirit that the expedition should force a passage over the hill. The- Mayor encouraged th'e idea.,; "I can walk over that," he stated, surveying the ■ rising forefront of Mount Victoria with calmly confident oyes. Finally a compromise . was struck. The party decided to. go by tram-car through the hi 11.,.., At this, stage a pressman who'had thus far faithfully followed the fortunes of the expedition elected to come, away; Tlie Mayor and:his party, 'all except Councillor - Thompson, who came.' away too, vanished into;the:tunnel. ' ... i