GISBORNE DISTRICT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16496, 31 July 1924, Page 5

GISBORNE DISTRICT.

PUBLIC WORKS- ALTERATION, EFFECTIVE FROM TO-MORROW. MR, C. E. ARMSTRONG’S RETIREMENT. From to-morrow the Uitborne district of the Public Works Department will be reduced by the transfer of two out of the seven, counties which it at presentcomprises into other districts, while Mr. C. E. Armstrong, who, for very many years past, has been the figure-head of all Public Works activities in the district will officially cease to be District Engineer. During the past two weeks the necessary formalities in connection with the alterations of th© district have been carlied out. The Wairoa. County has been transferred to the control of the Hawke’s Bay district, and the area affected has been handed over by Mr. Armstrong to Mr. Thompson, the two officials meeting in Wairoa and making the necessary adjustments. The same procedure was followed in Opotiki, which country has now been transferred to the Tauranga districtin cliarge of Mr. Dyson. Mr. Armstrong returned from Opotiki yesterday, having spent some- tune conferring with Mr. Dyson -regarding works in that portion of the district.

As a- result of the alterations the Gisborne district is now reduced to the five counties of Cook, Waikolm, Uawa, Waiapu, and Matakaoa, and the district, instead of having a district engineer, will now be controlled by a resident engineer. The curtailment of the district will mean the exclusion of a- number of large undertakings, but although this will detract from the importance of the district-, it will have tile result of giving the local staff the time and opportunity of concentrating upon the important works which arc to be carried out in th© centre of the- district, notably the new main highways—the road from Gisborne- to Motu, and that from Gisborne to Hicks Bay.

The principal works which have now been excluded are the construction of the railway, from Wairoa to Waikokopu and the Waikokopu harbor, and the work in connection with the harnessing of the natural power at Waikaremoana. In regard to the railway works and the Waikaremoana hydro-electric works these are both completed to the extent which it is at present intended to go, but there still remain unfinished the harbor works at Waikokopu, the main, road from. Wairoa to- Waikaremoana, and plans for which have already been designed in the Gisborne office. Tile road between Motu and Opotiki goes into the Tauranga district, this having been under the control of the Department. All the bridges on the road, except that at the Waiaua crossing, have been completed, however, and it is understood that the remaining one is now in contemplation. A’lthough Mr. Armstrong -officially retires as from tcv-night, he will continue for a week or two until his successor, Mr. G. W. Albertson, has become acquainted with the district and settled down to the/ numerous matters now in hand.

Mr. Albertson, who is now in the district, has been with the Department foils years, and for the past four or five years has been stationed at Whangnrei, where he was in charge of the railway construction works between Auckland and Whangarei. Prior to- going to North Auckland, h© was for some time in the Gisborne district, being encaged on the survey of th© Waikokopu railway route.