CITY’S MAIN OUTLETS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1080, 18 September 1930, Page 7

CITY’S MAIN OUTLETS

MANGERE ROUTE APPROVED ONEHUNGA BUSINESS MEN Mr. S. G. E. Closey, president of the Papatoetoe Progress League, addressed a meeting of the Onehunga-Manukau Chamber of Commerce last evening on the question of establishing a further main highway between Auckland and the South via Mangere. He pointed out that as road transport had become one of the most dominant features of modern life, it was necessary to look ahead for future outlets. He recounted how business interests had tended toward concentration in Queen Street, but predicted that the future great road junction of the metsopolis was in the vicinity of the Royal Oak, where four main highways met. Already, he said, the Main South Road through Otahuhu was fast becoming inadequate to accommodate the traffic passing over it, and he feared to contemplate what it would be like in a few years* time. The only alternative route, he contended, was at Mangere. branching off at Papatoetoe and crossing the Mangere Bridge toward Onehunga. In spite of the present Mangere route being circuitous, already the lorries of r.everal big carrying firms were travelling on that road in preference to the Alain South Road. Further, the sites for two airdromes had been selected in the Mangere district. INDUSTRIES ESTABLISHED Further, the Mangere district was situated in close proximity to what was being regarded the metropolitan industrial area, where many seasonal industries were already established. Mangere land was exceptionally fertile and could be cut up into small blocks for industrial workers, and so provide emDlovment for them in the off season. The route of the proposed new highway, he said, lay along a continuation of Buckland Road and was a mile shorter than the present route between Papatoetoe and Onehunga and practically the same distance as the main route from the South to Mount Eden. In the discussion which followed. Mr. J. Park contended that the Mount Ros-

kill people had been the greatest impediment to the proclamation of Manukau and Mangere roads as main highways because of their refusal to carry a loan for concreting Mount Albert Road. This could now be overcome by influencing the Main Highways Board in favour of the Papatoetoe League’s proposal. The main highway at present came to a dead end at Royal Oak. and the question for the future was which route was to be chosen from that point for a second arterial higliwav to the South. On the motion of the president. Mr. J.' E. Green, the chamber expressed its approval of the Papatoetoe League’s scheme, and the question was referred to the executive council to collect further data and report to the next meeting.