STREETS WITHOUT POLES

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1933, Page 3

STREETS WITHOUT POLES

TOWN OF NAPIER RE-BUILT ’ TEMPORARY SHOPS TO BE VACATED RESTORATION OF THE GARDENS. Napier, Feb. 11. The temporary shops, erected in Clive and Memorial Squares shortly, after the earthquake on February 3, 1931, are expected to be removed within ten weeks. With the rapid growth of the number of permanent buildings in the town area of Napier and the return there of the .retailers, the temporary shops are now more or less deserted, there being only one tenant in Memorial Square and five in Clive Square still occupying shops. These tenants, however, are awaiting permanent shops already secured, but which are not yet out of the builders’ hands. Under the supervision of the Public Works Department, relief labour is now being employed to remove the temporary buildings in Memorial. Square. When this work lias been completed an immediate commencement is to be made with dismantling the Clive Square shops. The material, consisting of sheet iron, timber and plate-glass, is being sold. The Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board is endeavouring to acquire some of the material to erect an old people’s home at Park Island to replace the building which was destroyed by the earthquake. The borough commissioners have decided to restore the gardens upon which the community shopping area was constructed and instructions have been given to proceed with this work, which will possibly take the form of a number of small jock gardens. Power poles and overhead wires’ are rapidly disappearing from the business area as a result of the decision which has been arrived at by the borough commissioners to have the’ wiring connected with electric and telephonic services underground. The work is proceeding apace and in a very short time all the power poles in Tennyson Street will have been rentoved, marking one of tho final stages in the task. When first the scheme was put in hand it was estimated that,, about £9OOO would be required to place all the services under the level of the footpath. Of this amount, £BOOO has now been expended, which indicates the extent to which the work has been completed. The power and telephone lines are being laid separately by the borough authorities and the Post and Telegraph Department, but the work undertaken by the department has followed in the steps of the borough workmen, and the remaining poles which are still to seen, in places will shortly disappear as the new scheme of things is followed.