BIRKENHEAD AND BIRKDALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18223, 17 October 1922, Page 10

BIRKENHEAD AND BIRKDALE.

Si r _I note with interest the letter in Monday's issue, by " Looking Forward. i,i which he expccts great advancemen for Birkdale if Birkenhead s loan of r 9B 500 for improvements is carried, in the proposed expenditure, Birkdale will benefit but little. The drainage scheme cannot, extend to Birkdale, as the distance from Birkenhead is too great, and no council, no matter how anxious to retrieve its good name, could lay down sewers to satisfy a district with ono house to the half-milo of main road. " Looking Forward" would find it cheaper and probably more reliable to instal his own septic tank. The water supply in Birkenhead is now very far from satisfactory, and Birkdale will certainly have to take second place when (if the loan is raised) the new council starts improving the water supply, -turning that the above contention is corrsct, then to what degree •will fire-fighting apparatus benefit the residents of Birkdale! As to electric light and power, if "Looking Forward wi iust for a moment look sidewavs he will sea that his rosy picture of flourishing Birkdale cannot be completed for many years, except at a very great expenditure, as the council evidently acknowledge, when at the last council meeting, they decided to place on the voting papers, for the electors' information, the names of streets in tha borough which would be reticulated. The transit service at present in the hands of a private company gives good service, and there is no doubt the companv has worked hard to riake | the business pay, and to raise the service to its present efficient state; but probaoly " Looking Forward'; is looking forward" to a drop in fares, m which lie will no doubt be sadly disappointed if the council purchases the service. " Looking Forward" has evidently not haa as • much in formal-ion placed before him as | the position warrants, or he would certainly know that the council cannot, even j for the large sum of £58,500, complete all } the works they now propose but by getting the sanction of the electors to raise the above amount it is quite certain that they will have * got in the thin end of the wedge," and having gone so far with the schemes the successors to this council will, at a later date, through lack oi funds, be compelled to raise a further loan to complete the work. X-Ray.