DEVELOPMENT IN HUTT VALLEY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 54, 27 November 1928, Page 10

DEVELOPMENT IN HUTT VALLEY

FORESHORE INDUSTRIAL AREA NEW ROAD BEING FORMED One of the forward improvements at Lower Hutt which has been talked of for the past three years is now rapidly taking definite shape. This is the formation of a road which is to bisect the industrial area which lies between the Hutt Park and the sea to the eastward of the estuary of the Hutt River. Work has been under way here for the last few weeks, and from both ends considerable progress has been made in levelling the road reserve and covering it with rotten rock as the basis of a more permanent foundation. This road runs obliquely in a south-westerly direction from a point at the southern terminus of Randwick Road (a couple of hundred yards from the eastern approach to the pipe bridge) to a point on the Lowry Bay Road, well above highwater mark, and will, when completed, form a new section of the road from the city to the eastern bays and Eastbourne, lessening the distance to be covered by three-quarters of a mile. The new road also promises to be a very busy one at all times, as already arrangements are being made to establish several important new industrial concerns there. One of these will be the works of the company which is going in for the carbonisation of coal on an extensive scale on lines which have proved successful in England and Germany, extracting from small coal (hitherto largely a waste product in New Zealand mines) volatile and heavy oils, gas, and smokeless fuel. Such are the deductions made in this regard that it is considered that within a year or two these works will be able to turn out gas of high calorific value for the supply of the whole of the Hutt Valley at a cheaper cost than can be done by the existing gasworks at Petone. The benzoline that will be produced in the process is also likely to play its part in the motor trade. Already the Harbour Board has agreed, subject to certain conditions, to erect a wharf near Pt. Howard (to the north-west of Lowry Bay) for steamers and the Railway Department will run a connecting line down to that wharf for the conveyance of coal to these and other works in the Valley. Other works that are to be established on the area include new woollen , mills (by a British company), and a large biscuit and chocolate factory.