STREET LIGHTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20115, 28 November 1928, Page 10

STREET LIGHTING.

The City Council, needing more street lamps, and wanting the funds to supply thcra, according to what was said at a meeting of the Power Board, wishes to have a certain number of those now used reduced in power for the sake of economy. It was suggested that certain thoroughfares were so brightly illuminated as not only to represent a waste of current, but actually to produce a glare that was almost as grave a fault as lack of light. The layman who is ordinarily observant has no difficulty in deciding for himself that there is light going to waste in a number of streets. It is very impressive to seo them so flooded that it is almost as clear as day ; the only reservation is whether it is entirely necessary. There arc streets in which the reflection of many lights on a paved surface, when it is wet, makes a crossing by a pedestrian more of an adventure even than usual if there is vehicular traffic about. All these things are the consequences of transforming Auckland from a miserably gloomy town, as it used to be, into what the chairman of tho Power Board described as one of the bestlighted cities in the Southern Hemisphere. If a little dimming of ifs glory can be effected with economy it is worth attempting. But while street lighting is being considered it is opportune to suggest again that the practice observed in some of the boroughs of switching off practically all lights after a given hour is carrying economy too far. The city burns its bright lights all night in very many streets. Some of the boroughs leave important thoroughfares almost wholly in darkness for a great part of the night. A little greater uniformity in procedure will make Auckland better lighted even if the city lamps were reduced to a less insistent standard. It is quite unnecessary to suggest that street lighting should be controlled by one authority for the whole metropolitan area; there arc enough proposals already for the control of public services in that fashion 1 . There is, however, room for more coordination to save tho town from being divided into areas of brightness and of gloom as it, is in the early morning hours at present. Recital of the City Council's difficulties should give the opportunity to consider this.