STREET CORNERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19275, 12 September 1924, Page 11

STREET CORNERS.

REFORMS IN SYDNEY. (From Oun Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 4. In Sydney, as in almost every other city in Australia and New Zealand, there are street corners which are not only a menace to traffic, hut which, if rounded off, would do much to break in an attractive way the uniformly geometrical straight lines of the streets. Cities arc paying to-day ior what was tacking in those -who built them originally—a little variety, a little imagination. Sydney especially is paying dearly to-day for Ihe short-sightedness of the earlier authorities. Like Argus, one would need to be possessed of a hundred eyes to zig-zag through the traffic in the busiest hours at some of our city corners. Under the City Council Amendment Bill, now before Parliament, powers are given for meeting the position and for the realignment of streets; but the powers which it is proposed to give to the council are regarded by some of the aldermen as nothing short of confiscation. A glance at the clauses of the Bill under review seems to suggest that to own property is not “all beer and skittles.” The Bill gives the council power to realign and fix the future boundary of any street. When notice has been served on an owner ho cannot rebuild his premises unless to the new alignment, nor can he reconstruct, replace, or repair any building existing between the new building and the old. The real sting, however, in the Bill as it stands is that the council is liable to pay compensation only for the land actually resumed, and when the land is cleared of buildings and obstructions. Thus it might easily mean the confiscation of the owner’s equity in a veiy valuable property. There is an insistent demand for such amendment of the proposals ns will more equitably protect the financial interests of those who have invested big sums in the city. ,