ADVANCE NEWTON.

New Zealand Herald, Issue 81, 16 February 1864, Page 4

ADVANCE NEWTON.

If any suburb of Auckland has increased wiih j more tlian usual rapidity during the last few | years it is Newton. Block after block lias been ! cut up into small building allotments, thrown j into the market, and eagerly bought up at great I profit to the original owners. And not "only have-these blocks of land been sold, but they hare been built upon, and where five years ng'o brown ridges ofti-tree met the eye, on every side are now to be seen the cottages of the thriving who. above all other classes, have ! espeeiallj 1 attached themselves to this suburb of j Newton. j Paniell has increased wonderfully during the j same period, but ten years ago was a ; rising; and populous suburb ; almost the same may oc said of the largo district of Freeman's Bay. Newton, however, is but of the Inst few years and its advancement has been both sudden and rapid. The original N ewtoli was, if we recollect aright, a block sold by Mr. Stark, 011 the left hand side of the Karangahape ltoad lying between Kast and Wests-treets. Soon after, a strip extending from Symonds-street downwards to the creel; was sold by Mr. Ashton and built upon ; then followed Cotele, the portion furthest away, and then the more important sales of the Messrs. Lawrie, and the block westward of West-street. All these have been more or less built over, and on an average jinay be said to have increased in value since the date of their sale from 100 to 150 per ccnt., even where unimproved, /j In the centre of them all lies a piece of land sonic 17 acres ill extent, which will be sold this day, in one hundred and twenty-six allotments, by: Mr. Samuel Cochrane at his store, Portstreet.: It has been so surveyed that the streets from the surrounding blocks will be continued through it, and arrangements have even been made,, only on Friday last, by the purchase of allotments sold at Mr. Ashton's previous sale, to carry Pitt-street through the new block across Edwin-street,' into Oxford-street, and so on into the Newton Road. •; Care has been taken in the laying out of the lots *to avoid the too common error of having narrow streets. These are all one chain wide, and this fact alone will have a tendency to raise the value of the property. We have seen too much of the inconvenience and loss occasioned by the laying.; out of narrow lanes in the Citv itself,, not to dread the fate of such streets at some future time, when that which is suburb, now. will be city then; and we think that some stringent law should be enforced in the lading out of suburban- townships in which the minimum width permitted to any street should be insisted upon as at least one chain. The block to'be sold to-day, and which is expected to be the most important land sale of the season next to that of 33rookville, is pleasantly and healthfully situated. Abundant and pure water may be obtained at the ordinary expense of well-sinking upon the ground, and the facilities for thorough and efficient drainage and its consequent healthfulness for family residence is complete. .It is almost as near- as Brookville to the . centre of the City, the new Bank for instance,'from which it may be said to be a twenty j minutes' walk. It.is the most valuable building i site, which is likely to be brought into the marfc'ef; for some time to come, possessing as it does this advantage.that-it is not the advanced outpost of the City in that direction but is already surrounded with- a most populous neighbourhood ; while the road to it by way of Sj'mondsslrecl is one of the best in the colony.