A FUTURE CITY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 43, 19 August 1930, Page 11

A FUTURE CITY

THE HUTT VALLEY

BOROUGHS SHOULD LINK UP

"ONLY THING TO DO

The joint meeting of the Lower Hutt and Petone Borough Councils, held last night to discuss the amalgamation report, resolved that each body at its meeting next Monday night should decide whether it was prepared to submit the question of amalgamation to the ratepayers by means of a poll. Asked for his opinion on the matter to-day, Mr. "W. T. Strand, ex-Mayor of Lower Hutt, said: — "Without any hesitation the right and proper thing to do is for the districts to join together. I would even go further than the boroughs of Lower Hutt and Petone, and ineludo Eastbourne and certain parts of the Hutt County. If you take into consideration the overlapping that takes place with regard to administration charges it is the,only thing to do. Tho present system of a number of local bodies each with its administrative, clerical, _ and engineering branches is uneconomic. N _ "Nearly everyone agrees that this Valley is the future city of the district, and yet we are developing by piecemeal methods instead of as a whole; much of the' work that is now being done could have been done to so much better advantage if the; natural boundaries of the valley had been taken into consideration instead of the boundaries we ourselves made. On© administrative body with good executive officers and broad views' would be the making of the valley. There is no need whatever for any of the places as at present named td lose their identity. Petone will always be Pe'tone, Eastbounre Eastbourne, and so forth. There is room for ratepayers' associations, beautifying societies —all we have now —and many more that could work ana would work for the benefit. and development in minor ways of their own particular districts. An enormous saving could be effected by doing away with the duplication of work that now takes place. ' Amalgamation will come, and the sooner the better. If it were to take place to-day this' valley would be Hhe fifth city in the Dominion. Our status would at once be raised from borough to city, and in a very short; time we would be the fourth , city in the Dominion. "We have no less than eight local administrative bodies in this district, each with its clerical staff. These could with advantage be brought into one, and a great saving effected. I have more confidence than ever that the growth of this valley has only just begun, and the future is bright for the district, given good and careful administration."