A GOOD INVESTMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13891, 27 October 1905, Page 4

A GOOD INVESTMENT.

Tms ratepayers of Woolaton will be neglecting their own interests if tlhoydo not endorse at the poll tho resolution which was carried at their public meeting last evening. Woolston, which has many natural advantages of its own, has long been the least lovely of the -suburban borouglis, a.nld this is largely due to the wretched condition of itfi roads. With the exceptiioiv of tuo main thoroughfare between Christchurch and Sumner, taiore is scarcely a road in the district that is properly formed, and even this 'stands in need of extensive improvements and repairs. No one in search of a residential site would think of venturing down any of ■the side streets, and as a ctwiEequance the population of tho borough/is not increasing as it should. When the electric trams are running at short intervals to the Heathcotio Bridge, many peop'l© who do .net core to- pay the high prices demanded for land in the northern

and "western suburbs of the city might be tempted towards the sea; but, with unformed footpaths and dirty, stagnant side-channels, very few of them are likely to look at Woolston a second time." The health of the community, too, is vei-y gravely menaced by the present condition of affairs. The deep, open ditches, which grow more unmanageable every year, are in the summer months veritable hot-beds for the propagation of disease, and if they are allowed to remain much longer*, the adjoining boroughs will have a very serious cause for complaint. There is no excuse for Woolston neglecting its obvious duty to itself and its neighbours. An annual rate of twopence in the pound on the unimproved value of the rateable property would provide all the money that is required, and would enable the borough to take the place it should occupy among the suburbs of a modern city.