THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTH CROSS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1914. THE JERMYN STREET SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15518, 28 January 1914, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTH CROSS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1914. THE JERMYN STREET SCHEME.

Whatever criticism may be levelled against the scheme for a new outht from the city by way of Beach Bead and Jermyn Street, it cannot be termed petty or inadequate. In submitting his developed plans to the City Council last night Mr. Parr dealt fairly fully -with the whole matter and made out a case which is at least entitled to the most exhaustive consideration. It is natural, of course, that the Mayor should be enthusiastic upon a project which is peculiarly his own and which, if adopted and carried out, will remain as an imperishable monument to a creditable mayoralty. But we need not discount in any way a civic enthusiasm which is inspired by a very real genuine desire to improve and develop the insufficient thoroughfares of the city. That other thoroughfares are urgently needed—including a great eastward road which will connect, by convenient grade, Lower Queen Street with Pqrnell and the districts beyond— goes without saying, as was frankly admitted last. night by Mr. Parr. Without waiving this point, however, it must be recognised that pressing need exists for the immediate goal involved in the Jermyn Street scheme. • Beach Road is not only far too narrow "but it doe's- not! now assist in, the slightest degree in draining' the-constantly congesting traffic that seeks the Symonds Street level from the waterfront. If it could be not only widened but also converted into an" arterial channel drawing city traffic and sending it away by an easily lifting road to Symonds Street, there can be no doubt as to the municipal gain. In any case Beach Road sadly needs reconstruction and modernising, and if Mr. Parr is even approximately correct in his estimates* and assumptions, it can most cheaply and advantageously be dealt with as. part of a greater and more ambitious plan- It may fairly be urged, however, that a grave mistake will be made if it be not replanned with a width of 100 ft. Beach Road must necessarily be a great thoroughfare and the city has too striking an object-lesson in the obvious narrowness of Grafton Bridge to again underestimate coming road requirements.

As for the Jermyn Street scheme itself, in which must be included all the financial and engineering work required before a broad and easily-graded thoroughfare can curve down from Lower Symonds Street to Beach Road, the question is too important and too complicated to be lightly decided upon. This is very properly recognised in the Mayor's suggestion that a competent advisory committee should be appointed to investigate and report to the civic authority. Whatever the result of such an investigation may be, .however, the Herald has no hesitation in endorsing the Mayor's contention that the ratepayers should not be afraid of the scheme merely because it seems " big." We have been sadly handicapped in Auckland by the hypnotic influence of those worthy and esteemed citizens who did not possess the supreme faith of Sir John Logan Campbell in the future of the city he saw planted on the desert-beach of Waitemata. Every progressive step has been timidly opposed. Adequate provision for expansion has always been hampered, and has frequently been prevented by the strange fear that Auckland's prosperity was some enchanted bubble which would vanish at the pricking of imagined difficulties. Even the harbour scheme —lately enlarged and remodelled under the shrewd chairmanship of Mr. Gunson, and still found none too rapidly completing for our growing commercial needs —was criticised by southern experts at its inauguration as too ambitious. Immense sums have been • frittered away, .during the seventy years of Auckland's civic life, upon municipal and harbour works which were adopted as "safe'-' and were found hopelessly outworn almost before they were finished. " It would 'be

sheer folly to 'judge the Jermyn Street scheme without confidence in the future of Auckland. This city of ours has no possible rival as the great port of the North. Its sheltered waters, its easy entrance, its anchorage at which we have seen an Armada lie uncrowded, are the natural basis of harbour works that, maintained and renewed, will serve this great province as long as pastures grow and dairies yield and the world is hungry. Auckland has grown to be the city it is in the face of a " taihoa" policy inconceivable to those who do not know the conditions of the province and must continue to grow until we have reached the limit of provincial production, a limit now far below the rim of the agricultural horizon. We need not fear for the future of Auckland nor hesitate at municipal development which is justified in the present and will be imperative in a few years to come. The Jermyn Street scheme is to be weighed against other considerations. It is undoubtedly "big" and being "big" it is essential that the finances of the city should not be affected by any miscalculations or misunderstandings; it involves, in its entirety, an extensive and complicated business transaction which is novel in its character and which must be treated as a precedent to be very carefully considered before formal adoption. This is the friendly but critical attitude citizens shou.d take up on the Jermyn Street scheme, so ably propounded by Mr. Parr.