DARK ACCESS WAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 63, 12 September 1938, Page 10

DARK ACCESS WAY

FOR COLLEGE PUPILS

ART GALLERY GROUNDS

> A deputation representing the trus- ! tees of the National Art Gallery and . Dominion Museum and the Technical p College Board of Governors proposed . to the tramways committee of the City ; Council today that an adequate, system . of lighting should be installed on the . access to fhe college on the western ; side of the Art Gallery and Museum. Mr. D. A. Ewen, speaking for the trustees, recalled the changes in the • general ground plan when arrangements were made, following a conference with the Minister then responsible, for an access way for college ' pupils from Buckle Street; that roadway had now become a public thor- : oughfare and was used night and day. The trustees were concerned with the lighting of the buildings, including flood lighting, and the Board of Governors with the lighting of the access way; it was a matter of necessity that lighting should be provided. Mr. G. L. Stewart said that though the Government had stated that it would not hand over the freehold of the access, an assurance was given that it would remain a permanent access. Even when the Mount Cook site was occupied by the Prison Department the access was regularly used, and today it was availed of by motorists as well as those going to and from the college. He thought the council might consider lighting the way through to Hankey Street. Mr. C. H. Nicholls said that the Board of Governors were very much concerned over the lack of lighting on an access used by so many young girls and^ young men. The Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, said that the committee already had before it a report upon the subject, not merely for the lighting of the western roadway, but for a full scheme, to be carried out when there were funds. The lighting of the western side, with up-to-date standards in place of poles or brackets, would cost about £350. Though the area was public land, the access was not a public street and the council was faced with many requests for lighting about the city, both in public streets and along ways regularly used by the public, as across the Town Belt. He suggested that the two bodies might be able to contribute part of the cost. Councillor A. Black remarked that as it was Government land some assistance might reasonably be expected from the Education Department. ' Mr. A. G. Ridling, director of the college, had doubts about that; he had not known of one instance when funds had been made available by the Department for lighting, so that if the college was to contribute it would have to be by way of a special fund. Both the representatives of the trustees and the college agreed that there was a good likelihood that they would, between them, be able to find perhaps half the cost of installing lights on the western side. '