MOUNT ROSKILL MERGER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19779, 28 October 1927, Page 13

MOUNT ROSKILL MERGER

POKING DAY TOMORROW. EFFECT UPON CITY AREA. THE INDEPENDENT BOROUGHS. ANOTHER ISLAND REGION. The poll on the proposal to amalgamate with the city will be taken in tha Mount Roskill road district to-morrow. As has been the case in other referenda of like character, interest is running high, and although the franchise will be restricted to ratepayers, it is expected that about 1800 votes will be cast. Tha number eligible to go to the poll is 2461 out of a population of 5000. The district has an area of 5000 acres, a capital value of £2,150,076, and an unimproved value of £1,048,457. Eating, on the capital value basis, aggregates 1 S3-64d ia the £1 in the western area and 227-64 d in tSs eastern area, the difference being accounted for by the raising of special loans within specified areas. In the case of Avondale, the "newest child of the city," tho proposal to amalgamate was carried on August 14 by 1260 vote 3 to 553, a total of 1815 votes being cast out of 3200 people enfranchised. Hie borough had an area of 3700 acres, a population of 5000, and a ratable ratimproved value of £471,000. Bates av«»i aged about Is, plus 3d water rate. Union! with the city was effected on (September 1.

City' 3 Growing Acreage, Tamaki road district was emphatic in its decision to join the city, carrying the proposal on June 22 by 894 votes to 205, but amalgamation does not take effect until April 1 next : The area affected fa. 6390 acres, the population 3453, and capital value £1,685,705. 1 Prior to Tamaki's decision, the hist independent district to come within the Greater Auckland scheme was Point Chevalier, which took the step in December, 1920, tho union being effected on April 1, 1921. Before the inclusion of Avondaie, £he area of the city waa 8584 acres.. It la now 12,284 acres—the smallest cH;y of the four centres with the exception el Christchurch, which has 10,660 acres. With the inclusion of Tamaki in April next, however, the swelling of Auckland's area to 18,674 acrea will make it the largest city, in a territorial sense, in the Dominion. Should Mount Koskill also throw in its lot, the city acreage would become 23,674 acres—73B6 acres more than that of the next largest city, Wellington. f Three "Island" Boroughs. Another interesting development which would arise from a decision on the part of Mount Roskill to amalgamate would be that Mount Albert and Mortni Eden boroughs would be wholly surrounded, like Newmarket, by city territory. Ia the case of Mount Albert and Mount Eden this would be achieved in the event of Saturday's being an affirmative poll, by the linking up of the Epsom and Avondaie city areas by that of Mount | Roskill, skirting the shores of the Mannkau.

There would then be left to the southeast the independent One Tree Hill road district, protruding a tongue of territory into the city proper toward Newmarket. Adjacent are a group of among which are the Onehxmga borough, Ellerslie town district and Mount Wellington road district,' occupying, as H were, a foorth of the square of closelysettled land across the isthmus. Polling Arrangements. Polling on the Mount Roskill- issna will commence at nine o'clock to-morrow and close at six o'clock. .It is expected the result will be known by 6.30. The polling booths are as follows? Chamber of Commerce, Swanson Street, city; Road Board premises, Mount Albert Road; Methodist Hall, Pah Road, Greenwood's Corner j Mrs. Brown's shop, Dominion Road; Mr. J. Pascoe's residence, Richardson Roadj Mr, Cant-elin's garage, Pah Road, near Mount Albert Road.

CITY COUNCIL'S VOTES. PROPERTIES IN THE DISTRICT. Properties owned by the City Council in the Mount Roskill district entitle the corporation to six votes at to-morrow's poll on the question of amalgamating that district with the city. On the motion of the Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon, at last evening's meeting of the City Com.cil, the town clerk, Mr. J. S. Brigham, was appointed to exercise the votes on the council's behalf, but no indication was given as to how they would be cast.