A GREATER AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15233, 21 February 1913, Page 6

A GREATER AUCKLAND.

The ideal of a Greater Auckland, fostered for years without apparent result by many of Auckland's best and most patriotic citizens, seems now approaching realisation. Representatives of Parnell sat at the City Council table last night for the first time, and an interesting item on the Council's agenda paper was the terms proposed for the. inclusion .of Eden Terrace within the city boundaries. A vote,of Eden Terrace ratepayers on the question is contemplated, and a, material clause in the amalgamation scheme is that the city ratepayers be asked at a poll, within four months' of the union, to sanction the expenditure of '£3500* on : ,t%e New North Road. Considering the importance of this outlet from the city, the warrant for the outlay can hardly be questioned. In Mount Eden the feeling on the Greater Auckland question is decidedly mixed, but the residents of the ward lying nearest to the city and abutting on Eden • Terrace are taking active steps to attach themselves to the larger municipality and cut adrift from Mount Eden. Remuera is finding amalgamation a burning question, with every indication of a decision favourable to the extinction of the existing •'■ "Road Board government. This in ; itself is a good beginning, but the matter might also with advantage be seriously considered in .Newmarket— after a period of exceptional activity, finding itself in "mancial raits—before any halt is aalledin tne extension eastward. To the west there are fewer local bodies to be absorbed, but only formalities are required to make Archhill an integral part of the city, and information is being collected in Grey Lynn with a view to a ratepayers' poll within the next few months. The population of municipal Auckland at last census was enly 40,536; with the inclusion of the boroughs and road boards mentioned and No. 1 ward of Mount Eden, it would, on the census figures, without allowing for growth of population, be 69,148, giving the Auckland municipality the greatest population of any local governing body in New Zealand, although onethird of the citizens of Auckland would still be resident outside the LjmmiciDal boundaries*