BLUE MOUNTAINS.
"Playground of Australia.”
ATTRACTING TOURISTS
"The Government aims at making the Blue Mountains the playground of Australia," said the Minister for Local Government (Mr. Spooner) at a civic reception at Blackheath on Saturday.
Mr. Spooner visited Blackheath with a four-fold object - officially to open the children's playground, in Jubilee Park, to turn the first sod of the Blackheath sewerage scheme, to switch on the electric lighting of the Memorial Park, and to inaugurate the flood-lighting of the swimming pool.
To encourage tourists to Blue Mountains resorts, said Mr. Spooner, the Government had subsidised the Blackheath Council to the extent of £10,000 to enable works costing £20,000, comprising tar paving, road construction, park improvements, stormwater drainage construction, and provision of pleasure grounds.
The Minister said the Government was country-minded and developmental in outlook. It was helping to develop inland towns on a subsidised basis. The health of the residents and the visitors to a district was of paramount importance. The public was entitled to protection against unhealthy or insanitary conditions, and it was a fair thing for the taxpayer generally to pay some proportion of the cost.
The Blue Mountains, he said, were being popularised by the provision of better roads, faster train services, and the cheapening of hotel and other accommodation.
The Mayor of Blackheath (Alderman W. Cripps), speaking at the sewerage inauguration ceremony, said the cost of the sewerage scheme was estimated at £67,000, of which the Government would contribute £25,867. A loan to cover the council liability of £41,133 was being raised. Repayment of the loan would be over a period of 45 years, in equated half-yearly instalments of principal and interest at 3J per cent, amounting to £911. The town of Blackheath had a population of 2554, and it was anticipated that, with a modern sewerage system, material progress would be shown in the future. The work would absorb 30 men immediately, and 200 in a few weeks' time.
Among the large attendance were the former Minister for Works and Health (Mr. Weaver), the Mayor of Katoomba (Alderman W. Soper), the President of the Blue Mountains Shire (Councillor W. P. Mathews), the Deputy Mayor of Blackheath (Alderman H. P. Collier), the town clerk of Blackheath (Mr. F. C. Taylor), and the Town Clerk of Blue Mountains Shire (Mr. Pedder Scrivener).
At a civic dinner, Councillor Mathews advocated the formation of a County Council for the Blue Mountains.
During his visit to Blackheath Mr. Spooner, who was accompanied by Mrs. Spooner, motored to the various resorts, including Govett's Leap, the road to which: has been tar-paved. He watched the diving and swimming competitions in the flood-lit swimming pool.
Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 21 December 1936
Retrieved 24-May-2011 from http://trove.nla.gov.au
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