THE WAIPORI GOLDFIELD BRIDGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26113, 28 March 1946, Page 8

THE WAIPORI GOLDFIELD BRIDGE

Sir, —The City Council persists with the absurdity of giving the name " The Edgar E. Stark bridge ” to a bridge which should be named as above. When the dam is full, —ll3ft of water—it will inundate the full length of the goldfield, the bridge being like the waist line of a well proportioned lady, nearer the lake head at Burnt Creek than Its feet at Post Office Creek, where the new dam is. Hundreds of the early diggers rushed and worked this historic goldfield and brought money, comfort, and modest affluence to a struggling community that was not too well off. It would be a distinct discourtesy to them to bestraddle the old field with the name of Stark, whose efforts will not aPP®“J edifying when the history of the goldfield is written. A lead such as the City Council is giving will bring along a whole spate of names on future bridges. How would Henley, Balclutha, Clydevale, Beaumont, Roxburgh, Alexandra, Cromwell, and other bridges carry the various Browns,, Joneses Smiths, Robinsons etc., who happened at the time of their being built to covet a pitiful snatch at terrestrial immortality. The bridge for good or ill, is the Waipori Goldfield Bridge, and it might as well be christened what It really Is.—l am. etc., Waipori, March 21. John T. Johnson.