HARBOUR RECLAMATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15551, 7 March 1914, Page 8

HARBOUR RECLAMATION

hobson street work.

PRACTICALLY COMPLETE.

MUNICIPAL MARKET SITE,

Progress of a most satisfactory nature has been made with the reclamation at the foot of Hobson Street, destined to be the site of the Hobson Street Baths and the municipal markets. Within a few | weeks the reclamation work, including the | making of such roads as it is the Harbour j Board's duty to construct, will be | finished. The principal road in the re- | clamation will be part of the low level of j Customs Street West, and this must, acI cording to the agreements arrived at in ; regard to the reclamation, be constructed |by the City Council. A large part of j the reclamation will be used for the city 1 markets; and according to a statement j made by Mr. J. H. Gunson, chairman of , the Harbour Board, yesterday, will in the course of a few weeks be handed formally to the City Council. The question of the | date of further dealing with the property l will rest entirely with that body. The j board has already handed to the council j the site for the Hobson Street Baths, and ; with the delivery of the market site the | whole of the new land provided | for the council will have passed into its control. The area includes the site for the fish market— portion of the reclamation which is now ready, and may be used at any time. A formal communication to this effect is to be sent to the City Council shortly. j The last remaining building on the old frontage of Customs Street West, said Mr. Gunson, is now being demolished, and will be entirely removed within a week. The total cost of the Hobson Street reclamation to the Harbour Board, remarked Mr. Gunson, will be about £13.000, and the rents which in 1915 would be received by the board from this source would be upwards of £4500 per annum. This reclamation was an exampie of the heavy demands which had been laid upon the board during 1912 and 1913, but as against which the board was accumulating assets of great value. At the same time the strain upon the board had temporarily been fairly heavy. It was only a matter of time, however, before the position, from the financial point of view, would be more than justified. Referring to other similar works. Mr. Gunson said that the operations which had been temporarily suspended in Mechanics' Bay had been resumed, and the big reclamation work would now be carried on without interruption until it was completed. There would be no further need for interruption, as the smaller reclamations were now finished, with the exception of the north-east corner of the Free man Bay area. In the meantime completion of that work would be deferred. The area of the land already reclaimed was in excess of pre sent requirements, but the allotments were going off gradually. It had always been the Harbour Board's experience, said Mr. Gunson, that its properties had not been sold either quickly or in large numbers, but with the expansion of the city's interests all its valuable leasehold lands became readily taken up.