PROFIT FOR THE RAILWAYS

Taranaki Daily News, 28 August 1930, Page 12

PROFIT FOR THE RAILWAYS

BIG DEAL IN PROPERTY. HUTT-PETONE PROG RE-SS. Semi-final figures of the Great Government subdivision in the Lower HuttPctone eastern area are now available, and they are eloquent, says the Wellington Post. Four years ago the land was open paddock, It was bought for £174,472. The State (through the Lands Department) determined to carry out a real public welfare subdivision, with the result that £l99,66l—considerably more than the first cost of the laud—was expended in subdividing on a scale of efficient service. And the result has well justified it, for the sales to date total £488,244. Thus a gross profit of £171,148 is disclosed on the trading account.

In its profit figures, but not in its service figures, this return might be taken as representing a grand coup by private enterprise. That it is a State undertaking seems hardly credible if one were to judge by the financial standing of some other State undertakings here an®, elsewhere. Still, the figures speak for themselves; and the quality of the streets, the services, and the general lay-out also speaks for itself. The scheme originated with the then Mayor of Lower Hutt, who secured the land purchase options. A committee took in hand the workers’ homes part of the scheme, and the Wellington District Office of the Landa Department (the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the Chief Surveyor) undertook the subdivision and section-selling of the auction area. It was the Lands officials' job to pull the money, and they pulled it. But first of all they had to expend more than tile purchase price in order to make the subdivision a model one. To do this, in the face of pessimism, needed pluck. The question is thus raised whether, in town-planning interests, the standards of private subdivision should be more strictly defined, especially in non-borough lands destined to become suburban or urban.

Alongside Lower Hutt and Petone this new residential area—railwayed, streeted, sewered, handsomely- built —has grown up almost in a night. Do not its authors and architects and staffs deserve well of the State?

A subdivisional cost exceeding the first cost of the land, and yet a gross profit nearly equal to the first cost of the land, indicate worry and responsibility for someone, as these results do not accrue of themselves.

The net profit emerging from 'this gross profit is £148,795, and this will go to the Department of Railways, which may thus be slightly appeased for carrying workers at below cost. At any rate, the Railway Department has not many such windfalls.

For what he still owes (on capital account) to the Lands for Settlement Account, the Commissioner of Crown Lands will be paying this year in interest about £6235. But the interest due to him on the unpaid purchase money of sections is not less than £12,760 for the year! On velvet? Yes.