ELLERSLIE’S BIRTHDAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 985, 30 May 1930, Page 6

ELLERSLIE’S BIRTHDAY

TOWN BOARD ANNIVERSARY The Ellerslie Town Board’s 21st anniversary was celebrated at a meeting of the board on Wednesday evening. The chairman, Mr. Hewson, presided and Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P. for Manukau, and Messrs. M. MacCallum, S. Somer field and G. Peek, first members of the board, were present. The district’s progress since the time of its separation from Mount Wellington was traced by the clerk, Mr. J. W. Carr. In 1911 the population was 947, which had increased to 2,680 in 1928. The capital value in 1909 was £156,763 and in 1Q29 the figure was £730,925. In 1923 a loan of £29,000 for laying down bitumen roads had been raised and the following year the streets had been lighted by electricity. In 1926 £7,000 had been spent in concreting the Ellerslie portion of the Great South Road. The Main Highways Board, said Mr. Somerfield, had its inception in Ellerslie, having grown from the Good Roads Association. Mr. Jordan, said he had requested the Government to prepare a combined scheme for drainage on the Manukau watershed. It was proposed to build a grammar school in Rockfield Road and the erection of a junior high school near Otahuhu was under consideration.