STRATFORD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16466, 19 June 1919, Page 5

STRATFORD.

FROM OCR RESIDENT AGENT. Juno 17.—The voxod question of the position of the. taxi-stand was settled by the Borough Council last night in favour of Benton Street West. Hitherto it has boon in Broadway, opposite the Post Office, where it gave annoyance to the shopkeepers whoso premises it fronted. It will not give similar trouble in its new position, but, on the other hand, tiie stand Iron! the taxi-drivers’ and the taxi-hirers’ point of view is not nearly so convenient. The council deputed the Mayor and Councillor Cameron to join the local bodies’ gathering in New Plymouth next month, when the Taranaki County Council is to bo waited upon about its remarkable vuhielo-taxhig proposal. An unwelcome bit ot news at the council table was that tenders lor the new Diesel engine for the electrical department were a long way above the estimate although the council’s engineer had added £IOUO to the estimate received from Wellington. It’s bad to be a buyer in those times, whether you want' a traction engine or a tin tack.

Our Ifttle attempt at relieving the ugliness of the approach to tho railway station has attracted tho notice oi the authorities and a largo advertising hoard has boon erected which screens from the gaze of train passengers the little oasis of green turf and (occasional) flowers. There is no maudlin sentiment about tho Railway Department. It has certainly tolerated for a considerable period the row of shrub specimens in green tubs on the platform, but then these are quite in keeping with the grubby surroundings, and besides do good work on dark nights in tripping up the department’s natural eneniy . tho public. A rather unusual reply was given by the Borough Council to a deputation from the Kgmont. Club which applied for a relaxation of the building by-laws making brick walls compulsory in the inner area. The reply was that there was a doubt whether tho by-laws applied to the ease but that, if it was discovered that tho council had no power to prevent the dub using timber, the club would still defer to the opinion of the council on the matter whichever way that opinion went. It appears that the dub wishes to put an upper story on its dub-house, principally for the accommodation of the Returned Soldiers’ Association. It will he a pity if tho project is made impossible. There is no present necessity for brick boundary walls in the locality, of the club-house.