ESSENTIAL WORKS

Evening Post, Issue 154, 1 July 1936, Page 10

ESSENTIAL WORKS

TO MAKE UP LEEWAY

CITY LOAN PROPOSAL

SCHEDULES IN HAND

Commenting today upon the loan! schedules which are being drawn up by the committees and officers of the City Council, the chairman of the works committee, Councillor W. Appleton, said that he was convinced that only by raising a loan would it be possible for the city to make up the leeway of the last five years.

"But, of course," he said, "it is for the ratepayers to say whether money shall be raised. That there t^e urgently-needed works all over the city, some large, some small, cannot be denied, and if their urgency is appreciated the loan will be approved. There is still much work to be done before the schedules can be completed, but the proposals should be ready lor submission to the ratepayers by about October."

Councillor Appleton confined his c remarks to street works and drainage t requirements, though other items will also be put forward. The works committee, he said, has been starved lor money during the past five years and £ as a consequence had been unable to X undertake necessary works in many * directions. Members of the committee had recognised that the policy was * not. sound, in that lack of attention ' when first required must lead to deterioration and greater ultimate ex- ( penditure. but they were caught in the ' tangle of the depression and had no ] choice. The depression had brought ' higher city outgoings on one hand, . particularly in interest payments as a . (result of high exchange, and, on the : other, had meant lower receipts from rentals and other sources. There was : one ready way in which the gap could be closed, and that was by cutting down the allocations to the spending committees, of which works was the chief. ■ CUT TO LESS THAN HALF. "Just how much this has meant to the committee in its endeavours to keep city works up to date will be ; realised when a comparison is made of the allocations from 1929 onwards," said Councillor Appleton. "In 1929 the street works allocation was £91,600; in ■ 1930 it was £85,085. It was cut to i £56,937 in 1932, to £37,421 in 1933, s and £39,830 in 1934. These figures hardly require comment. Not only was it 1 not possible to carry out works long 1 recognised as necessary and new works ' which became necessary as the city 1 developed, but streets and footpaths f deteriorated through lack of maintenf ance, which would have cost consid--2 erably less than the sums which will 2 now be required to bring them back 1 to proper order."

Unquestionably, the depression had slowed up the growth of the city, but still there had been an increase in the number of new homes, particularly in the Karori district, and with that development had gone the need of increased expenditure upon the services which a city dweller expected, and had a right to expect, as well as the essential services, drainage and water, and though all that could be done | with strictly limited finances had been carried out it could not be said that

.he work was complete. "To my mind," said Councillor Apple-

ton, "the time has . come when we should seal or treat every street in

the city, for,'apart from the convenience and improvement, the work will pay for itself in a.few years. Considering the small sums that have been available each year for some time now the paving and sealing programme has been wonderfully wide, but the full programme' will save money in the

long run. Further, I believe that every suburban street should have at

least one footpath, but there are still many which have none."

Another difficulty which had followed upon the reduction of the works committee allocation was that the plant account had run out, and last year it

had been necessary to allocate £7000 for that purpose. An instance of what 1 followed upon the exhaustion of that ! account, he remarked, was seen when ' the storm-water drainage job in Cam- ( bridge Terrace was started and the ' men were faced with the heavy task of shovelling slushy sand and mud ] from a deep trench in two handlings. : Even though machinery might dis- ' place some men it was not right—and the men themselves agreed—that such slavish work should be done by hand in a mechanical age. DRAINAGE SYSTEM RECONDITIONING. In the city proper a heavy demand had been placed upon all services by the erection of such large office blocks as the Prudential, the Colonial Mutual, the T. and G., the A.M.P., and a dozen or more earlier large buildings, and particularly had the demand been imposed upon the drainage system, designed 40 years ago, when no such developments had been contemplated. The consequence was that the drainage system could only just cope with the demands upon it, and under certain circumstances failed to do so, with the result that at such times a certain amount of sewage was discharged into the harbour, to the danger of the health of the city. Nor did underground drainage systems last for ever, and there had already been several unpleasent failures in the pipes which, when taken up, were found to be worn or corroded, through to almost paper thickness.

"The urgency of a reconditioning of the city drainage system and its extension to meet increased suburban developments is beyond question," said Councillor Appleton, "for here it is not a question of work that is desirable or which one group of people or one suburb -would like to sec done, but a work that must be done to safeguard the .health of the whole of Wellington."

The City Engineer and Deputy Engineer are at present at work on a comprehensive report and scheme for the I modernising of the system, Councillor Appleton added, and until they had presented their report it would not be possible to indicate the ' requirements in any detail. Possibly the work would involve a total expenditure of a quarter of a million pounds, but that would probably be spread pver a period of some years. ' TYPICAL URGENT WORKS. The engineers are also preparing the schedule of necessary special street works which cannot be provided for out of annual revenue, he continued. Some time ago the works committee visited each suburb and from their inspections had made a selection of the most urgent needs. Many requirements which were real enough had had to be passed over, but, even so, the pruned list would involve an estimated expenditure of £64,388, mainly in surfacing roads, footpath work, kerbing, and channelling, grade improvement, remedying road dangers, and widening at bad spots.

Last year the total amount available for such special works was £8117, but there were single urgent jobs which would eat up the best part of that amount. Works which he had in mind were the widening of Connaught Terrace and Fortunatus Street, the construction of a retaining wall in