THE CIVIC YEAR

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 10

THE CIVIC YEAR

PERIOD OF MARKED PROGRESS SOME BIG WORKS INITIATED RATING ANOMALIES j Few will dispute that the year now drawing to a close has been one of marked activity and progress municipally. It is true that it might be said that there have been left undone things that ought to have been done, but they have been far outweighed by the many large and Important works which are fraught with great significance to the future of the Empire City. Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery, Outstanding from an aesthetic and scientific point of view was the great campaign for funds, so enthusiastically headed by the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Troup), for the erection on the dominating Mount Cook site of a new National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum, in which venture the city is acting jointly with the Government. The city had to find £lOO,OOO to gain the Government subsidy to the same amount, and that this sum (minus only a few thousand pounds) was raised by the City Council and citizens, was easily the biggest achievement of the kind yet recorded in Wellington. It will mean the release of the old Dominion Museum site in Museum Street to the Government and the disappearance of the existing Academy of Fine Arts building in Whitmore Street. Tenders, called some months ago, will close towards the end of next month, and it is hoped that by the end of 1930 the new edifice that is to crown the city will be well forward. There will also be an added feature in the Carillon Memorial Tower. The bells have already been heard in England (at the North-east Coast Exhibition at Newcastle-on-Tyne) and in London. They will probably be shipped to Wellington after being dismantled at Hyde Park. Drainage of Miramar. Another very big work of which the citizens know comparatively little is the complete and modern drainage of Miramar, put in hand some six months ago. This was a work of necessity, and was urged by the Government Board of Health, and approved by the Loans Board. Miramar is now fairly closely settled, and being for the most part an almost level plain, drainage in a primitive way has always been more or less unsatisfactory. In the emergency made by settlement it was deemed necessary to put Miramar’s house in order, and that is being done at present. Wellington’s Biggest TunneL Matters concerning access to the eastern and western suburbs, following upon the 1928 report of the Access Commission, have taken definite form during the year. On the eastern side the loan sanctioned in 1920 for a tunnel was utilised to bring about the consummation of that work. A start was made in the winter with the approaches to the portals (the money for which was found out of unemployed relief loans), and the Mayor (Mr. G. A. Troup) has already driven the first pick in connection with the boring of the tunnel, which is to connect Patterson Street in the city with Moxham Avenue in Kilbirnie. The tunnel is to be a general traffic as well as a tramways one. The Hansford and Mills Construction Company are the contractors. The Way West. Nor has the improvement to the western suburbs been neglected. The advance of settlement in that direction, and particularly at Karori, has rendered it almost imperative on the Corporation to curtail the length of the present circuitous route to the west. Good spade-work has been done in the widening out of Chaytor Street and the expansion of Glenmore Road, but the heaviest work in this direction is the gargantuan earthwork that is changing the. aspect of Sydney Street West. Grades are all important. It was found that for a main highway to the west this street was unsuitable in grade and breadth for practical purposes. It was therefore decided to change the levels altogether from the Tinakori Road end to the old Sydney Street cemetery, through the northern end of which the new road is to pass. It was also decided to make a by-pass road to connect upper and lower Sydney Street West (as the new level of the former road will not permit of a connection as heretofore). The immensity of this work (another unemployed relief work) has not been allowed to pass without some criticism, to all of which the Mayor replies: “Wait until it is finished—it is going to be one of the most valuable street works ever undertaken in Wellington.” This, it is retorted, may prove to be true, but it does not combat the rather alarming increase in the rates. Kelburn Viaduct. Further access to the west of an improved character is represented in the construction of a new viaduct (in place of the old wooden, one) connecting Kelburn west with Northland. This structure, which is costing some • £21,000, is now under way. The contractor is Mr. W. Hodges. ' The New Airport. With the aerial era upon us, Wellington has not been slow to recognise its responsibilities. Unfortunately placed, with regard to extensive unoccupied areas of flat though the Empire City is, the City Council, led by the Mayor, nevertheless resolved that there must be an airport, and steps were taken to create one in the only possible situation adjacent to the city—at Lyall Bay. Here, on the isthmus dividing Evans aud Lyall Bays, have" existed from time immemorial a large area of sand-dunes, the real value of which has only been realised in the last decade. Yet the whole of these lands were once offered to the city for £2oo—and rejected. Though perhaps not as large in extent as could be desired, the 50 acres which have been levelled make an excellent landing ground for aeroplanes. So far none of the machines making flights have found any inconvenience in using the new airport, which has only been opened a few weeks. Water Supply. Water is one of nature’s first demands. Those with long vision have foreseen that before mnny more years have passed Wellington city and its surrounding boroughs will have to look for larger and more certain supplies of mountain water than it. commanTls to-day. The setting up of the City anil Suburban Water Board, together with the acquisition of the watersheds of the upper reaches of the Hutt River (the Big and Little Akatarawa Streams), marks inevitably the line of development that must come within a few years. At present Wellington has just about enough for its dry weather requirements, but there are growing boroughs now in need of supplies of water from untainted .sources, and whilst the representatives of such bodies are n little shy nt being burdened with a pro rata share of the cost of the Hutt River scheme, it appears almost certain that some arrangement will have to be arrived at sooner or later to bring it to fruition.

Detailed surveys of the catchment area are now proceeding. The Civic Block. During the year there has been a good deal of discussion upon the proposed civic block —the co-ordination of corporation departments and the acquisition of property to make that possible. Only a few weeks ago the City Council decided to purchase the Education Board’s block in Mercer Street for £51,000 in order to consolidate its hold on the Town Hallpublic library block; but, though the council was given to understand that such an offer would be accepted, the Minister of Education (Hon. H. Atmore) has held the matter up—only temporarily, it is hoped. The scheme to open out the vista before the front of the Town Hall, by clearing away all the buildings on the triangular block bounded by Lower Cuba Street, Jervois Quay, and Wakefield Street, is somewhat idealistic and will certainly prove costly. In the meantime the Wellington Fire Board is fighting valiantly to retain its present site on that block, rather than accept a hew one on the foreshore land now occupied by the rowing clubs. The Mayor has pi/imised a new report on the matter at an early dffte. Road Works. As usual, road works have occupied a great deal of the attention of the, city engineer’s department. Good work has been done in this respect in many parts of the city, notably in Glasgow Street, South Kelburn, Wadestown, and Karori. Paving operations have slackened off. Tinakori Road is being attended to —and not before time —but Adelaide Road, Jervois Quay, and Customhouse Quay—woodblocked roads —cry aloud for repairs. The asphalt, too, between the tramway tracks and the reserve m Kent Terrace is breaking up rather badly. . ' City Rates. Many citizens have cause to regret the change in the rating system, brought about as the result of a poll taken last year This was brought about by Councillor M. F. Luckie’s desire to see the city rated on the annual or capital value instead of on the improved value (whereby as a general thing rates would follow the increase in value automatically), lhe cudgels for rating on the unimproved value were taken up vigorously by Mr. J. P. O’Regan, who presented a petition for a poll, and succeeded in carrying it. This has meant a reduction in the rates in some of the suburbs, but a commensurate increase in city property, in some cases to an extent not anticipated. Everyone agrees that the water rate is anomalous, yet so far there has been no definite movement to rectify the anomaly. It acts to the owner of blocks of suburban land, where only one or two sections are occupied, for occupied or not. it has been ruled by the Government Department concerned that the full water rate has to be paid on each section —even if there is no water pipe in being onjthe land. This is surely a matter tor action on the part of the council, the members of which agree as to tho injustice of the charge.