SUBURBAN REQUIREMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 63, 17 March 1922, Page 11

SUBURBAN REQUIREMENT

- TO Til iniTOK. Sir,—Surely if what "Fiiirplay" writes in lasi ■ nio-ht's issue abput his district is correct,; Island Bay will certainly have to concede^the title of "Cinderella suburb" to Melrbse. Anyhow, tho district ia getting tired of the name, and will welcome the -transfer. "Fairplay's" spirit ie good in that he does not begrudge progress to sister suburbs, and for his remark I would ■refer to a remark made by one'of the ( civic speakers at tho Island Bay meeting of electors on Tuesday evening, that "the council could not take much notice of applications for improvement unless made by representative bodies," and judging by the, tone of his letter "Fiiirplay" woufd make an excellent presidont or secretary for a live electors' association. Referring to Island Bay, and taking the iwuaF estimate of four persons to a house, there are, with the " adjacent vsettlement at Happy Valley beach, 4000 residents to be catered for, and much that has been achieved is due to the persistent efforts of past officers of the Island Bay Electors' Association —a body whose interest lies not only in what it can get for its own district, but also in how it can help the City Council to do ft. Island Bay is, and will still further be, what Melrose can ; never be—Viz.,- aholidny resort for city residents; arid the suburb will not be satisfied till its residents and visitors can sit in comfort during the halthour run to and from the city. A bigpercentage of travellers, both men and women, cannot now even stand without unseemly inconvenience to their fellowpassengers, and we object to such contli-' tions, and are getting quite tired of it. There are dangerous and unlighted sections of much-used thoroughfares; there is a beautiful foreshore, spoilt by a slum area: there is a fishing fleet of twentyeight or thirty deep sea launches manned by between fifty and sixty of our fellowworkers, who have to land city food on jagged recks or opon beach, with a consequent average depreciation of their price for fish when the catch reaches market. Every year or two the residents on the flat have to wash Mornmgtou and Vogeltown flood water out of their carpets and pile their furnituro on tables and bedsteads. I could go on, Sir, but your space is limited. There appears, however to be a "rift in the lute," ,iiid the 1.8. E.A. boilieves the City Council will, when possible, be as good as its oft-made promises, now the war is over and money is becoming available, which in recent years was needed to protect our nation.—4 am, etc G. R. C. JACKMAN, Hon. Sec. Island Bay Electors' Assn. 15th March.