Forum And Aginum

Post Office Site

Sir: Congratulations on taking an interest in this question. You hit the nail fair on the head with your question: "If the Post Office never existed on the present site would it now be under serious consideration?" The answer is obvious.

The Grey Street Road Services site is outstanding. It has everything, and no costly buildings to take over and demolish. The postal business must grow, but there is no reason to think this of Road Services. --A. C. deLautour.

A Complaint From Mangapapa

Sir: As a ratepayer of Mangapapa I wish to ask why the development of this suburb has not kept pace with that of other suburbs. Because of the lack of sewerage reticulation we still have to endure the filthy conditions which exist with the old-fashioned, insanitary outdoor toilets which have to be some distance from the house. Our roads also must surely be the worst in the district. All year round they are full of potholes which shake your car to pieces. In the summer they send forth thick clouds of dust. During the winter, instead of dust there is thick mud and plenty of surplus water. The appeal to traffic to travel slowly is a joke. All around us we have unkempt open drains, which become flooded streams in winter, a potential hazard for elderly people and school children. Most of the footpaths are not much better.

These are conditions which Mangapapa residents have put up with for years, and would like eliminated without further deley. --Tired Of Waiting.

Cook Memorial

Sir: It is inevitable that port development will ultimately destroy the present site of the Cook Memorial as a tourist attraction. How can we lift this nationally and internationally famous monument out of the backyard of wharf sheds, engineering workshops, freezing works and the like, and put it on a site which is imposing, dignified and suitable?

This is a solution: Why not reerect it on the level site a few hundred feet south of the Kaiti Hill lookout? This could be landscaped to suit as part of the Titirangi Domain development. Here it would look out over Cook's landing site, Young Nick's Head, Waikanae Beach, and the whole breadth of the bay in which he sailed. What more suitable location, which every tourist already visits to enjoy a justly famous view of the city and surroundings.--Bicentenary.