Kilmore Street resident, Richard Taylor, writes to the Provincial Secretary in 1858 informing him that they have already begun forming the streets in the area, and seeking help to complete the task. Forming the streets was initially a very crude process and only the most used streets were metalled using shingle dug up from Hagley Park and from pits within the city itself, a situation which often saw holes being dug in one thoroughfare to provide surfacing for another. Prison labour was often used to repair the roads. Although trials of asphalting certain small portions of footpaths were carried out in the 1860s it was not adopted widely until the 1890s.

CH 287 CP16 ICPS, item 813/1858