Plea to open peninsula roads to motor traffic

Sir. - The decision of the Portobello Road Board not to open its road to motor traffic is much to be regretted, and I am quite sure the policy is inimical to the best interest of the various townships en route. The decision denotes a perpetuation of the retrograde by-law and establishes and exclusiveness which is neither wise nor generous.

Visitors to Dunedin who "do the city and suburbs by motor car are thereby deprived of the privilege of traversing this route, which is one of the chief delights of the district. There is really no valid reason why the by-law should stand. It would have been infinitely more cosmopolitan if the road had been open to cars with a speed limit, and such a precaution would have been justifiable.

The opening up of this district to motorists would have an economic value. Visitors require hospitality, but the Peninsula Board closes its doors. There are nearly 650 automobilists, besides their friends, in the provincial district, whose cars and cycles are invariably on the road, but who are prohibited from visiting the Peninsula. This means money, and caterers cannot share it. The removal of the ban would tend to open up the district. The more facilities for transit, the greater the prosperity. Locomotion precedes prosperity, and the advantages thus afforded enhance the value of properties.

To progressive observers, the by-law is against public interest, and most certainly against the interests of Peninsula electors. St Clair won't always be the pear in the eyes of investors. Shrewd men have watched and smiled at inflated values in that district, and at the exploitation by paltry speculators that has been rampant during recent months.

Shortly investors will turn another way, and, in the judgement of men who are looking ahead, they will go to the Peninsula. In face of these facts, it behoves the Peninsula Board not to be narrow in its views nor benighted in its policy. - I am, etc, AUTOMOBILE.

• The Duke of Buccleuch, when Lord Dalkeith, introduced, it is believed, the cigarette into English society. He was attached to the special mission of Lord Granville to attend the Coronation of the Czar Alexander II, in 1852. Cigarette-smoking was then habitual in St. Petersburg, but had not made its way to London. Lord Dalkeith introduced it.

• A splendid catch of trout was made in the New River, Little Bush, by Mr R. McKenzie, on Monday, of eight in all, the largest weighing about 4lb and the average being over 2lb. They were (says the Southland News) in the pink of condition and remarkably uniform.

- ODT, 10.11.1911.