AT SCORCHING BAY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 138, 8 December 1931, Page 7

AT SCORCHING BAY

RAISED BY COUNCIL

OCCUPANTS PROTEST

Some time ago the Lands and Survey Department handed; over to the City Council for administration as a city reserve an area of .waterfront land at Scorching Bay. On this land a number of whares, aoflio permanently occupied and.some need for week-ends only, have stood, for years. Prior to the handing over of the land to the council the. occupiers of the whares paid £5 per :year rental. The council proposed to increase the rent to £18, but, after being approached by the residents, agreed to reduce tho rental asked to £12 per annum.

Last evening a further deputation waited >upon the council to ask that the old rates should b© re-instituted. Councillor B. Semple saicl that the question had been lief ore the council previously and the facts were generally, known. The residents wero not satisfied with the proposals put forward by the council, said Councillor Soiflple: he had read the letter sent by the council, and considered that some of the proposals were too drastic. If an agreement could not at once be ' arrived at, it was suggested that the residents should set up a small committee to meet a committee of the

council to go. into the conditions impbsed. The council, said Councillor ySemple, could very well afford to be moro merciful. . ■

THE CASE FOR THE RESIDENTS.

Mr. G. Goodby said that a deputation of residents of tho bay reserve waited •■upon: the Reserves Committee on l&th October seeking to have the rents that had been imposed by the council reduced to tho sum that was charged prior to the council taking over the reserve from tho Lands and Survey Department, £5 per annum. The Reserves Committee, no doubt, considered that it was doing the right thing by reducing the rent from £18 to £12, but a great hardship still existed. "We feel," continued Mr. Goodby, "that if you will give the matter your earnest consideration you will sco that we are only asking for justice after taking everything into consideration, including the depressed state of the titties, the distance from, the city, eight miles, no water supply, no sanitary service, and that the nearest school is two miles distant. All of these things mean direct and indirect expense to us." , In addition, they had gone to the expense of having the electric light and gas laid on, which meant considerable outlay. With one or two exceptions they were dependent upon weekly wages, and the conditions imposed pressed upon them severely.

NO RIGHTS BEYOND WHARE

SITES.

"The Government valuation is only £100 for the unimproved valuo on the land alone," continued the speaker, "and we cannot claim tho use- of any of the land save that portion alone on which the whare actually stands, and ■which averages about 20 by 20ft, or 25 by 25ft. The deputation asked that the rents should remain as they were, £5, before the council took over the reserve. Tho residents were only asking for a fair thing under the circumstances, and were willing to bear their share of any1 extra cost incurred by the council ■should it be thought necessary to provide sanitation and a water supply. Councillor W. H. Bennett pointed out that at Plimmerton sections had been cut into four, and whares had been erected on the subdivisions. . The resjilt was that an epidemic broke out.