THE CIVIC YEAR

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 82, 31 December 1928, Page 10

THE CIVIC YEAR

CORPORATION’S ACTIVITIES REVIEWED

SOME IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS

Municipally the past year has been a very important and fruitful one. Many important street works have been completed, or nearly completed, while the initiation of a municipal air port at Lyall Bay and the successful Art Gallery and Museum appeal are undoubtedly landmarks in civic history.

The year drawing to a close has been one of considerable activity in civic circles. Wellington is a fast-growing city, which, by the force of its central position, its magnificent commercial harbour, its vigorous climate, its ideal situation as a distributing centre for the whole of the Dominion, must continue to progress, and the municipality must have advanced ideas and vision to keep apace with that progress. Nor has that sense of bigger things to come been lost sight of during the year. For example the City Corporation has been particularly active in respect to the widening and improving of streets, the rounding of street corners, reducing of street grades, making dangerous roads less dangerous—in fact, a great effort has been made during the year to put the streets into better order than they ever have been before.

Best Street Surfaces in New Zealand.

From a street-paving point of view Wellington leads the way at present. Its policy of sealing its streets with a hot-mix bituminous aggregate has within a space of four and a-half years given the Capital better road surfaces than any other city in New Zealand ; and now the Corporation is turning its attention to the secondary, or residential streets, with a tar-sealing process which, whilst not giving anything like the wearing surface of a pavement, seals the surface for a time, and helps to allay the dust demon. This work is being done to schedule, and, as this work is done very rapidly in fine weather, there is little doubt that before next year is out there will be a great improvement in most of the residential streets of the city. There is just a little doubt as to whether the treatment given these streets is not on the light side. The street surfaces are cleaned up with brooms, and then a light coating of hot tar is hosed on under air pressure of 601 b. to the square inch. This makes a fine spray of the tar, which is promptly covered with metal chips. Some of the work has been inspected, after six weeks, and it does seem that such light treatment cannot stand up to the fairly heavy traffic of some of the streets so conditioned. Another coating of bitumen is eventually to be given such streets, which may have the effect of giving a better sole to the surface. In the matter of solid paving notable work has been done in Grafton Road (Roseneath), which opened the way for a motor-’bus service from Hataitai via Roseneath to Courtenay Place. Wellington Road (Kilbirnie) has been wholly paved, so has Museum Street, whilst Featherston Street was reconditioned before the holidays—not before its time. Two Big Works.

Road works, as apart from paving, have occupied the attention of the Council during the year, the two largest concerning improved access to the western suburbs. One of these has been the widening regrading of Glasgow Street, Kelburn. This important highway, which connects Kelburn Parade with Upland Road, was formerly a narrow winding .road, with positively dangerous corners, aud for its greater length with no footpath. This has all been changed, at very considerable expense to the city. The road is now nowhere less than 42ft. wide, the grade lias been reduced and made uniform, on the ugly corners the banks have been cut back and the curves have been straightened out by the erection of a very solid reinforced concrete wall and filling. The reconditioned street is now open for traffic. It has yet to be surfaced, but that cannot be done economically until the new fillings solidify under traffic and the weather.

The other big work has been the improvement of Gleninore Street, between the southern end of Tinakori Road to a point beyond its junction with Orangi Kaupapa Road. This was formerly a very narrow, damp gully road, but through taking in a strip of the Botanical Gardens —really a neglected gully—the width of the road has been doubled, its contours completely changed, and in the lower section the handsome new fence given to the Gardens lends a dignity and grace to this busy and 'picturesque avenue to the west. Lower Taranaki Street. , Another street work which attracted considerable attention earlier in the year—more in respect to the incompleteness of the idea and its great cost —was the. widening of Lower Taranaki Street. The street has not so far been realigned, but the buildings are all down, and the job of setting .back the kerbs will no doubt be undertaken early in the New Year, The job is not considered a very satisfactory one from an aesthetic or town-planning point of view, seeing that one-half of the short stretch of street is to be 80 feet in width and the other half 100 feet.

Property has already been acquired in connection with the proposed widening and straightening of Thorndon Quay, which is to be brought about in connection with the vast improvement that will be given affect to when the new Kaiwarra Bight reclamation is brought into use. Road work cannot be passed over without a reference to the work done during the winter through the medium of the workless. These were employed on the Point Halswell and other roads, and their efforts must be added to the sum total of the road work done during the year. Civic Air Port. At Lyall Bay there have been great doings. With a swiftness that is surprising, this great area of sand dunes is being levelled off, and what was considered waste ground thirty years ago is now considered to be an area of immense potential value to the city. During the early part of the winter some levelling of the area was put in hand for the purpose of the extension of sports grounds. Then came the great Kingsford Smith trans-Tasman (light, and its consummation by their arrival in person here. This'.' achievement brought home to many the near approach of the era of air transport, and the necessity of providing for its coming. What was the use of aeroplanes if there were no landing places? Kingsford Smith had to land on the Trentham racecourse, twenty miles away.

That was no good. These experts were shown the sand dunes of Lyall Bay. and they pronounced them to be suited for the ordinary purpose of an aerodrome. The corporation took the matter up with some enthusiasm, and, raising a loan for unemployment, initiated the work, which is still in progress. Soon there will be a fifty-acre flat on the borders of Cook Strait, ami within fifteen minutes of the city. Au Aero Club has already been formed, and during the coming year it will doubtless begin its activities in real earnest. A Great City Improvement. During the year a monumental improvement was decided upon in connection with . the decision to continue Bowen Street through the Sydney Street cemetery, and so provide a new tramway and traffic highway directly connecting Lambton Quay with Tinakori Road. Following upon this came the decision to take the angle out of Bowen Street. As it is at present it would be almost impossible to provide a safe curve for tramway tracks from the Quay into Bowen Street, so it was decided to take in Quinton’s Corner; then the city and the Government got together and decided not to make “two bites at a cherry,” but to slice off all buildings eastward of the Tuhibull Library (in Bowen Street) and the Self Help Stores (on the Quay), in this manner opening up a vista of Parliamentary Buildings, providing a new avenue altogether from the Quay into Bowen Street and leaving the old corner an island reserve for Wellington’s war memorial. Nothing so far has been done, except to “proclaim” the properties, but this work is expected to be carried out during the coining year. The corporation is pledged to go forward with its new route to the .west, and is equally pledged to go forward with a new tunnel connection with the eastern suburbs. The Northland Tunnel. The much-discussed Northland. tunnel has been at length completed, and is now in limited use. “White elephant,” as it is known to local residents, it is considered a sad lesson to engineers as to how not to do a job. Engineers who have teen the work declare it a huge mistake —that the open ent was the practice to follow under such circumstances—it is laid down in all text books. Following upon the tunnel contretemps, trouble ensued over the erection of a huge retaining wall, needed to support the road opposite the eastern portal of the tunnel,' and here, again, some mistake or misunderstanding seemed to have come about, for the work was held up for some time by an injunction taken out by the owner of an affected property. There are many at Northland who believe that tunnel and wall are a huge and costly mistake, and that the suburb could be just as well served by motor buses (as is at present the ease) as by the trams of the future. Whilst touching on this section of the city, mention should be made of the recent slip at the Kelburn viaduct; the subsequent strengthening of the eastern foundations, and the proposal by the city engineer that sooner or later a new bridge will have to be provided at that point. The Civic Block. i So far, no progress has been made with the development of the civic block. The architect’s report was very favourably received, and the council decided that it would first go on with the construction of a civic administration block on the vacant land at the rear of the Town Hall, and that eventually the buildings to comprise the civic block should be continued in uniformity as to architectural idea, right to the present Free Public Library. This means the work of ten years or more, perhaps, but once the first section of the block is erected, tire rest may be gone on with as the demand requires. In the meantime, the library calls loudly for expansion, and the only feasible way of doing so economically is for the council to take over the Education Board’s block, in Mercer Street, and connect the library with it. The plan of the architects is for a new library on an island site on the land now occupied by Messrs. Smith and Smith, and the old tramway power-house. But that idealistic plan leads to many considerations. New Milk Station.

A new milk station was decided upon last year, but since then, Mr. R. Herron has returned from England and America, with all the latest ideas about up-to-date milk station plants, and more land has been taken over in Tory Street than was originally thought necessary. Most ot the plans have been completed, and tenders will be called at an early date for the erection of the first section of the new works. Wharf at Island Bay.

Wharf and landing accommodation for the. fishermen at Island Bay is proving as easy a thing ,to handle as an octopus. The’ question . seems ,to have so many tentacles. The council’s intention to place the fishermen—a mixed Scotch-Italian’ colony—on the island is being boldly combated by the men df the sea, who state that the position of the wharf, on the island is unworkable, and that the pulley-haul tramway proposed would be working the whole of the L 4 hours if they had to get their fish to the mainland by that method. On the other hand, the residents protest ns strongly as ever against the fishermen’s proposal to utilise the rocks on the eastern side of the bay. At. present it is not easy to say what will be the outcome of the present tangle. Two of the most welcome movements of the year have been t le provision of further playgrounds for children, thanks to the generous-Shirtcliffe bequest, and the great amount of tree-planting on the hills, accomplished during the winter out of unemployment money, a movement which should have some reflection in the years to come. National Gallery and Museum. The year has witnessed one of the most remarkable responses to an appeal for an aesthetic object ever known in New Zealand. The Reform Government promised £lOO,OOO subsidy for a National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum, conditionally on the citizens of Wellington subscribing a like amount. The challenge was taken up this year by the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Troup) and under his able direction the sum of over £90,000 has already been promised, so that this year should see the development of a long-cherished dream of a great art gallery and museum erected on the heights of ‘ our local Mt. Cook—an eminence that overlooks the whole of the city. Building Still Active. Wellington is maintaining its place at the head of the list in New Zealand for value in buildings erected. For the year ended March 31 last, the £2,00(1,000 point was passed, and from the present outlook the figures for the current financial year will possibly be just as great.. There is no surer sign of public confidence in a city than the money value of buildings erected, and in that respect Wellington has headed the list of New Zealand cities for the last four xeara. ■