THE DISPUTED ROADWAY.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 127, 30 May 1900, Page 4

THE DISPUTED ROADWAY.

Wo observe with satisfaction that the City Council has at last resolved to take over Buckle-streel, and make it serviceable for traffic. It is to be regretted, however, that the Public Works Committee on Monday night did not show equal wisdom in the case ol the small portion of Waterloo-quay abutting on the Thorndon Esplanade. This piece of roadway has long been a bone of contention between the Government and the Council. The dispute is at best but a legal quibble, and in the public interest the Council should have done with regard to this roadway what it intends to do for Buckle-street. We can see no reason why the one should be taken over and the other fenced in, as the .Committee recommends. We quite agree with Councillor Anderson that the Council should take over the strip and make it a public street. The City (Solicitor, it is true, advised the Council that it had no legal responsibility in the matter, but, a public body has moral as \vell as legal responsibilities. Public convenience demands that this piece of road way should be formed and kept open to traffic, and the citizens who suffer by the Council's action will not pay so much haed to the legal as the moral responsibilities of the civic authorities. We trust that al» its next meeting the Council will reconsider the question, and reverse the decision of the Public Works Committee.