A QUEER BARGAIN.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 28 April 1927, Page 13

A QUEER BARGAIN.

To tho Editor of tho “Timaru Herald.’ Sir,- —Your issue of Saturday last reports that tiie Harbour Board resolved to make a “firm offer” to the Borough Council, for a month only, of a little bit of land asked for by the Council, to enable it to exchange as much with tne Bailway Department for the widening of "Stafford Street, north end, Iho price to be £'soo. The Mayor of H...«.ru, as a member of the Board, t-xpiesscd approval ol this, lor lliougn tlie land nnglit net be worth much lo the Board, it would be worth £uOU to the Borough Council. He said it would not be required, probabiy, for tlm next ten or fifteen years. Hie rest of tho land, on the other side ot the street, was prohibitive, while tiio cost of tho proposed exchange was moderate. Is tins so? Had Mr Wallace or tho Council obtained from tho Railway Department an estimate of the exchange if consummated, lliave seen nothing of it. The £SOO is a mere bagatelle to the cost of shifting tho line, and this cost, the Mayor told tho Council on March 28th, tho Council must bear. Consider what the Council wilt nave to pay for, on tho Railway Department's tonus for an exchange.. Much of the street-widening will be on “made ground,” requiring a strong retaining wall. A new overhead bridge will bo needed, and, more important still, a new steel viaduct, for if tho lino is shitted 27ft seaward, it cannot be safely carried oil to the present viaduct. There must bo more or less new embankments, with some retaining wall. I cannot undcrsiiu.vt the Mayor thinking the cost of all tins will bo “moderate.” It seems to me likely to bo so largo that no future Council will undertake to carry out Die proposal, but will say: “Tho street is not so wide hero as elsewhere, but it carries nothing but straight-through traffic, and it lias been wide enough for that, and will be wide enough lor all time. Ono thing tho payment ot £SOO would secure to tho Council immediately—lt would give it- the right lo cut down the popular pmo shade Dees between the Railway and the Bay cliff (or some of them), as has been threatened, bub prevented by the Harbour Board.—l am, etc., FOOT BRAKE. ' Timaru, April 23, 1927.