STREET WIDENIG

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 11

STREET WIDENIG

A QUESTION OF COST, A further lengthy statement regarding the , Taranaki street widening scheme has been handed to "The Post" by Lieut.-Colonel • T.'. W. M' Donald, chairman- of: the ■ Vigilance" Committee. • In tho ■epurs6-b;£/.this '"statement Colonel M'Dofrald.cialls upon.thVCity'Solicitor, to specify which' of his (Colonel M'Donald's) ■statements are either' deductions or inferences or are inaccurate. "Tho City' Solicitor," he proceeds, "denies that the Mayor attempted -to remove the responsibility from himself and the councillors and place it on the shoulders of the officials, and then ho immediately says that ho is one of those .officials prepared: to.,take responsibility for all the-, settlements. I say that neither lie.nor-any official is capable of accepting such responsibility, for it lawfully, attaches .to? the Mayor and council. The City Solicitor says that the reason for not taking the land andsaving over £25,000 when the permit was issued was because the Corporation did not contemplate widening Taranaki street. H? must mean 'the council, because the Corporation had nothing to do with the widening." This, says Colonel M'Donald, is a most valuable admission, and- ho challenges the City Solicitor .to state .definitely what was the-reason which caused ;th© council ten months afterwards to widen this street at such a tremendous cost to the ratepayers. The City Solicitor, he maintains, carefully avoids answering his statement as to how the full benefit of betterment could and should have been secured' to the city. He also contends that the City Solicitor's admission that neither the Mayor nor any member of the- council took part in the actual negotiations is a.very ■ serious one, and not only Confirms his charge on this point, but it proves that the Mayor and council have seriously neglected their duty to the ratepayers. On being shown Colonel M'Donald's statement, Mr. J. O'Shea, City Solicitor, said: "The only matter that requires any specific comment is Colonel M'Donald's remark: 'I challenge the City Solicitor to state definitely what was the reason which caused the council ten months afterwards to widen this street at such a tremendous cost to the ratepayers.' The only reason that I know is-that the council, in view of tho increasing traffic in the city and tho continuous though unexpected development of motor traffic, ■ thought that It was necessary to provide another exit to tllo south by way of Taranaki street, and for that purpose to widen the street. This is confirmed by the1 street-widening operations of the council in; Taranak:. Street south ,pf Manners street."