HIGH STREET WIDENING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18130, 30 June 1922, Page 6

HIGH STREET WIDENING.

The widening of High Street between Vulcan Lane and Shortland Street is necessary for the development of the business area of the city on modern lines, and vitally important to every property owner in the vicinity. It is to be hoped, therefore,' that, at the conference of owners of property in High Street and others interested with the Workß Committee of the City Council a serious effort vill be made to arrive at an understanding which will enable the project to be put in hand. In a city where land in the commercial area has reached a high figure, street-widening projects almost always are fraught with difficulties, which are never lessened by delay. The making of a thoroughfare from Quay Street to Wellesley Street would involve so large a sum that, for tfhe present, it may be classed among those desirable improvements which, of necessity, will have to be postponed until more pressing works are accomplished. The widening of the very narrow portion of High Street between Vulcan Lane and Shortland Street, however, is a matter which is well within the realm of accomplishment and. actually, is a much more pressing need. The distance is short, and on the eastern side, where ground for the extension must be found, there are only two properties in addition to that owned by the council itself. Naturally the city could not enter tain a scheme which would involve the purchase of every inch of land and the payment of full compensation for the disturbance of commercial interests. But the scheme might weir be undertaken if all the owners of property which would be enhanced in value by the work were prepared to contribute either in land or in money in proportion to the benefit they would receive. A glance at some of the streets which have been widened is sufficient to enable one to visualise the street as it might be. To make it so is worthy of the most serious endeavour.