PROGRESS OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13097, 9 February 1906, Page 5

PROGRESS OF AUCKLAND.

FROM AN ARCHITECT'S STANDPOINT. The general prosperity and progress of Auckland, from an architect's standpoint, during the past 20 years was referred to by Mr. E. Hartley, president, in the course of his retiring address at the annual meeting of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects last evening.

Mr. Bartley said that closely connected with the .success of their profession was the growing prosperity of Auckland, and as an example he would give two or three what he might term barometrical readings. First, there was the rapid increase of our population, without which the building trade, and, therefore, their profession, would be manifestly stagnant. From 29,850 in 1880 the population of Auckland had increased in 1904 to 67,226, an increase of nearly threefold. In the balance-sheets of the Auckland •Savings Bank they saw the unmistakable spending power of the people. In 1880 there were 5301 depositors, with a credit balance of £157,923, as compared with 35,459 depositors, and a cash credit of £934,274 in 1905. Then again in 1880 flic deposits and accumulated profits amounted to £181,221, but iii the last balance-sheets £1.013.726 represented the amount under the same heading. The depositors, therefore, had increased nearly seven times, and the other figures nearly six times. Another sure indication of the spending power of the people was the consumption of gas for power and lighting. In 1882 62,385,000 cubic feet of gas was sold, and in 1905 342,541,000 cubic feet, also an increase of nearly six times. As further evidence of the rapid growth of Auckland and suburbs, it was only necessary to drive through the miles of newly-formed streets and roads, to witness the vast number of villas which had been erected, more especially during the last 15 years, villas of considerable size and variety of design and'colour. It could not now be said, as it used to be, that the Auckland villa designs were of the same type and monotonous in colour. Ho had visited the South several times, and he could say without fear of contradiction that the designing and colouring in Auckland would compare favourably with those of any district in New Zealand.