substandard housing, crime, and Trade Union activity was probably a contributing factor in its eventual destruction by City Planners who used the Motorway as a convenient tool to rid the city of what they considered a problem area. This was in accord with the example set by Robert Moses in New York City and emulated by similar Town Planners around the world. Before the 1870s there were several brick works in Newton Gully including some which manufactured tiles, pipes and even 'Art Pottery'. These companies were progressively relocated to New Lynn; many 19th-century bricks found in central Auckland bear the imprint "Newton". From the 1890s onwards Newton was the location of many small scale industries: shirt, clothing and boot factories, upholstery, rattan furniture & basket manufacturing etc. It was also the location of several specialist metal works including brass foundries and bicycle importers & manufacturers. Situated between the busy retail areas of Karangahape Road and Symonds Street (which were, and still are major routes), Newton was a fairly densely populated suburb, mainly of a working class nature with many boarding houses. Until the construction of the motorway system in the 1960s, the gully area was the location of several primary and intermediate level schools and about six churches. In the 1880s there was concern that the domestic water supplies for the area were being contaminated by the adjacent Symonds Street Cemetery; The Newton gully was created by a stream which drains into the Western Springs area to the east. The possibility of Well water being contaminated by decomposing matter and embalming chemicals (arsenic in particular) was quite a worry, leading to the eventual closure of the cemetery and the opening of a new facility at Waikumete in West Auckland. In the 1940s an area south of Newton Road underwent a process of slum clearance to alleviate the perceived problems of an area of densely packed sub-standard housing. Properties in Basque Street were purchased by the Auckland City Council. These were demolished and the land cleared resulting in the creation of Basque Park. The new park, which was completed around 1945, included a playground for children, ironically this facility came at a time when much of the housing in the area was being replaced with light industrial businesses so the park has never seen much of the use it was intended to see. As a slum (or 'Decadent Area' as they