HUTT VALLEY A GREATER WELLINGTON

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 56, 8 March 1922, Page 6

HUTT VALLEY A GREATER WELLINGTON

It is true, as Mr. Mitchell, M.P., pointed out in Monday's issue, that friction between local bodies has handicapped the development of the Hutt Valley, and has hindered the realisation of its possibilities as the greatest area of level or undulating land available for the city's overflow along flat communication lines. Realising the existence of this handicap, yet loth to appear to dictate to local governing units, The Post has favoured amalgamation, but has suggested co-operation as a line of least resistance. If the gas dispute between Lower Hutt and Petone is finally settled by agreement, one of the biggest steps in co-operation will have been made; and if the proposed new controlling body proves a success, it will encourage the creation of similar bodies for controlling common services (such as water supply), and these common service bodies will become a natural stepping-stone to amalgamation—amalgamation of the Valley boroughs, and, later, amalgamation with Greater Wellington. When the gas settlement's out of the way, the public men of Lower Hutt and Petone would do well to take up one of the most urgent and complicated < problems — improvement, of communications. The concrete road from Wellington to Petone is urgent and is settled policy; it should be pushed on, and would be a means of throwing more light on the efficiency of motor service. A question not, settled is whether the existing railway should be duplicated between Lower Hutt and Silverstream, or whether it should cross the Hutt River (say, between Petone and Lower Hutt) and proceed to Silverstream, forming a loop line by way of Nainai and Taita, serving Crown lands en route. There are various alternatives that we have not space | to discuss. Why should not' Lower I Hutt and Petone Borough Councils appoint a joint cpmmittee to consider a scheme and (when the scheme has been approved), to carry on continuous propaganda in supp.ort of it? t -