TRAMS TO TARADALE

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 69, 23 April 1929, Page 8

TRAMS TO TARADALE

Sl'GGESTION BY MAYOR.

The suggestion tliat tlic trainway svstem should be extended to Taradale and Greenmeadows was made to Ihe meeting of the Napier C'ity Council last night by ihe Mayor, Air J. Yigor Brown, who urged tliat the town would expaud in tliat direction in tlie iuture. He conimeiitod tliat it seemed it would be years before reclamation would be done and it seemed tliat tlie town must liaturaliy expand tliat way. The Alayor referred to tlie question of taking tlie trams over tbe railway . line in Hastings street. He remarked | that the Government liad previously I imposed conditions that the council j could not agree to owing to tlie cost, but the Government had now made a proposal tliat he thougkt tliat tlie I council would adopt as the cost was } onl.v £9U0. • Tlie council had autliority for £19,0(10 left from tlie tramway loan to take the line to Kinross AYliite street. Since that loan was granted, liowever, conditions had changed greatlv. Xapier South had been more denselv settled, to sucli an extent tliat land was now difiicult to secure for rcsidential purposes. The council had been trying for a loug time to secure land for liomes from the Harbour Board, but that seemed almost impossible. The amount of land provided averaged only about an acre a year for tlie last 16 years and it was discouraging to liave to stand still. The town had to progress somewhere and it seemed obvious that it could I not go over tlie svvamp. It would proj bably be j'ears before tlie roading there was 'done and in any case tlie levels had to be taken into consideration. „ The town had to look for some other direction in which to expand and it seemed to him tliat something would liave to he done to foree the town out towards Taradale. Tliere were endowments all round the town and it seemed that the price of reclaimmg them was pvoliibitive. The council could not expect people to build on too expensive land and it seemed to liirn tliat the council would have to secure the permission of the ratepayers to divert the purpose of the loan for the tramway to take them through Napier South and right out to Greenmeadows and Taradale. There seemed plentv of freehold land out there, that could be bought by settlers and built on. Taradale and Greenmeadows were progressiye centres of settlement and seemed desirable districts for home making. Tbe incoming council, he thougkt, would have to see if it could not invoke the co-operation of the people of Taradale and Greenmeadows to mu the trams out there and make those places suburbs of Xapier. The question of taking ihe trams to Taradale and Greenmeadows would have to be taken into consideration earlv in the life of the new council and Hastings and Greenmeadows, he was sure, would co-operate. Cr. Higgins : You mean Taradale and Greenmeadows, sir. The Mayor : Oh, yes, of course. That was a slip of tlie tongue. Cr. Higgins : It might go to Hastings eventually.