WHITIORA BRIDGE.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15274, 26 June 1923, Page 6

WHITIORA BRIDGE.

(To the Editor). w ,. r Sirt —There has been a tremendous lot of talk about a bridge for Whltiora, but I wonder how many ratepay-X'-ers of the borough have actually considered the utility of such a structure.' In the first place, the host might be anything up to £40,000, and, after all, -who is it likely to benefit? Not the —people of Hamilton East, West, nor of Claudelands; and not even those of Frankton. The residents of Claudelands who want to come into town would doubtless as lief use the railway footbridge, if they happened to be walking, as a traffic bridge at Whitiora. If they are fortunate enough to possess cars, the difference in going round by the present traffic bridge is negligible—merely a matter of a couple of minutes. As the proportion of people who drive horses is very small indeed, they can hardly enter into the discussion where such a large amount of public money is involved. It will be seen, therefore, that people desiring to come into Hamilton from the Claudelands side of the borough and the districts beyond would find no advantage in crossing by a bridge at Whitiora, and the people of Hamilton will surely not want to provide a bridge merely for shortening the distance a little between Claudelands and Frankton. The bridge would, in any case, only lead out to dead-end country, as it were. There are no centres of population beyond Claudelands like there are eastwards of the town —Cambridge, Morrinsville, Te Aroha, Rotorua. There is only a sparse population leading on to a big area of unreclaimed swamp. The advantage of a bridge at Whitiora even to these people would be very small, unless they happened to be driving stock. But the residents of Hamilton do not want to saddle themselves with this tremendous expenditure for the convenience of a few stock drovers. After all, the people of Victoria Street pay the biggest proportion of the rates, and they will not be seeking to add to their already very heavy burden in order to divert traffic away from their shops. I cannot see,Mr Editor, that the proposed bridge is justified in the slightest degree, and I think the Council 'would be wise to drop the idea altogether.—l am, etc., VERAX.