SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1900.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 102, 27 October 1900, Page 4

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1900.

GREATER WELLINGTON. The recent municipal agitation in the Borough of MeJrose has revived the question of creating a Greater Wellington. The Miramar scheme and the acquisition of the tramways by the City Corporation also tend to direct public attention to the same subject. In our issue of-Wednes-day last Mr. Devine, who, as City Councillor, was a consistent advocate of city extension, wrote at some length to show that a Greater Wellington would help to solve the difficulties under which the Corporatior now labours. As he rightly argued, the Borough of Melrose has no real unity, and is in effect little more than a geographical expression. Each of its component parts has more in common with the city than with the other parts. Amalgamation with the city would give the so-cnlled borough a coordination of interests that is, and must be, lacking so long as it remains a separate municipality. The discussions that have arisen otat of the Borough Council's proposals have evidently brought home to the burgesses the diversity of their needs, aud many of them, more especially in Roseneath and Kilbirnie, have begun to repent of the suburban opposition offered to the Greater Wellington scheme formulated by the City Council last year in the aborlive City Extension Bill. If Miramar, and ultimately the Jenkins estate also, are to be acquired by the city, the Melros© burgesses living to the east of the Town Belt will feel an increasing desire for admission into the larger Corporation. One correspondent who professes an earnest wish for a Greater Wellington is anxious to see certain necessary improvements carried out.in Melroso first, in order that "the City of Wellington cnu be approached, not cap in hand, as .would be the oas'e now^ but on terms of greater equality." This attitude can eaailv bo understood, but in any case it would bo well for suburban supporters of incorporation with the city to los« no time in bringing their views before the public, and in educating opinion. It Mas suburban opposition which led to tho withdrawal of the City Extension Bill, and it would bo dangerous for the outlying boroughs to neg.ect another opportunity if it wore given to them. The udvantages to be derived from amalgamation will fall to the suburbs quite as muqh as to the city, and the suburban corporations cannot expect the City Council to be constantly, urging upon them the claims of Greater WoUington. During the past year events have been illustrating the merits of City extension, and the scheme is, we behove, appreciably nearer realisation. The n»w areas it was proposed to add to the city under the Bill of last session were — (1) The Borough of Mcl rose - f (2) the Road District of Seatoun ; (3) part of the Borough of Karori ; and (4) a portion of tho Hutt County outsido tho Seatoun Road District, and commonly known as the Poninsuln. These new boundaries were delimited with a view to geographical * conditions us utfacling drninugo, fuluro ttum Ncrvicos, and other such mutters. Tho City Council is now seriously considering tho purchase of Minunuv; itml if that step in taken a move will have boon made in tho diroction of cxtumUn^ tho city, and tho natural consoquonco will bo to encourage tho tmppoi'lcrH of tho nban* doncd Bill of last year, Tho Cily Council also has now launched upon a eareov of municipal activity that Hhould before many yours havo passed bring tho Empire "City of New Zealand into lino with modern developments. This nativity is largely concerned with publio conveniences 'such as tramways, lighting, drainage, water supply, atid so on. The suburbs,, will also require similar activity, and thers can be no gainsaying the fact

that these various improvement schemes wiil gfun in cineiency, and be carried out with greater economy, if devised and executed under one common contiol. Our tramways, to be made popular and profitable, will need to be extended into what are now suburban districts. The sanitation of the suburbs iff a matter of vital importance to residents in the city, and if a Greater Wellington weie established residents in the newly incorporated districts would find that the burgesses of the central portions of the city would — even on the lower grounds of self-inter-est — be anxious to see that they were supplied with sanitary and other municipal conveniences. The Ons'.ow Borough, for instance, has, we understand, a very defective system of sanitation, and it may even now be contemplating withdrawal from the proposed contract for the removal of nightsoil, in spite of the gross abuses recently revealed in connection with its disposal. Doubtless if such ,be the case the officers to be appointed under the new Public Health Act will before long have something to s:ay to the Council, but residents who feel the inadequacy of existing arrangements 1 will realise that reforms would promptly take pltice if tho Borough became incorporated with the city. Generally speaking the extension of the city boundaries should greatly improve the conditions of life in tjie suburbs, and any consequent increase of rates would be more than met by the inevitable, increase in. the value of suburban property. The city would gain by the extension in many ways. It would be freed from the risk of unwholesome congestion if the neighbouring districts were "properly developed, its tramways and ; other muni-cipally-owned conveniences would become more profitable by being extended, and the status of the municipal authorities would be raised by the widening of their area of activity and responsibility. The betterment of the suburbs that would follow upon incorporation would also tend to raise the value of city property, as has been proved over and over again in the growing cities of older lands. A Greater Wellington will become a necessity in the future, and those who work, prudently for it will be serving posterity as well as consulting their own immediate convenience. __—-»—.