A CITY IMPROVEMENT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 275, 14 August 1920, Page 7

A CITY IMPROVEMENT

A WIDENED WILLIS STREET. Practically the final act in.the widening of Willis Street toot place yesterday, when the framework of the front of Mr. W. Smart's old shop was removed, leaving the new brick shop premises fully exposed to view. It is iuterestincr to recalP that the Citv Council ,/ias taken i fifteen years to widen Willis Street by ten feet, and such has been the growth of traffic in tho meantime that it. is hold by many to be a pity that the scheme did not provide for a •Sflft.-widomns:. The scheme commenceO at the old "B.vko" corner, the proportv recently acquired by Mr. It Dwyer, of the Empire Hotel, from Mackay,'Logan and Caldwell. Gradually the 'widening process dragged on until about five years ago, when (hem were delays concerning properties south of Old Customhouse Ouny (including the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel), and, in the latter ease, litigation hnd to be resorted to to bring about n settlement. That ease was heard in September, MIS. and it has taken twenty-four months to bring about tho nctu.il widening: of the street in that vicinity. Nothing now remains but to readjust the alignment of the footpath, and for the telegraph poles to be reerected along the new line. Possibly the latter part of the work would havo been completed with grentor celerity, were it not for the difficulties encountered over labour and material since the -war ended.