POINT HALSWELL ROAD

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 290, 7 September 1928, Page 10

POINT HALSWELL ROAD

IN BETTER ORDER, BUT STILL NEEDS IMPROVING

There are still a number of former unemployed engaged in making the Point Baisweil-Scorching Bay road reasonably safe for motor traffic. It seems almost incredible, but this wonderful harbourside road has been neglected for fourteen years. It was in fair order when it was peremptorily closed on the outbreak of war in 1914, but as it was used very little during the four years of war it lapsed into a state of disrepair. The Government did not feel inclined to do much to the road oil the termination of the war, and as it was then in a dangerous condition, the road was not opened to public traffic. Two or three years negotiation between the Government and City Council followed in connection with the taking over of the road by the local authority, which wanted a full 66ft. reservation. At length that was obtained, and last, year the road from MiramaY Wharf to Point Halswell was put into order. This left the rest of the road in as bad a condition as ever, but a good deal of pot-hole filling and metalling has been done during the winter. This marine drive is regarded as tar too valuable to be neglected much longer. From ‘ Point Halswell to Scorching Bay the road requires to be widened by at least another ten feet, and surfaced. This would give Wellington City one of the finest harbourside motor drives in the world. The late Mayor (Mr. C. J. B. Norwood) said that this work would be done before .1930, and pronounced it to be a monumental, asset to Wellington upon which no value could be placed. In Karaka Bay the road is still narrow, but good, though there is one very bad corner for motor traffic, where the Freeman property protrudes upon the road in a sharp angle. It is regarded as a pity that the City Council and local Highways Board cannot come to some agreement to take the whole of this road in hand. ’