VICTORIA PARK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 140, 12 June 1912, Page 2

VICTORIA PARK.

EXCHANGE O* PBOPBBTTr MD FBXVIEEGES, BETWEEN - CITY COUKCEL AXl> HAKBOUE BOAKD. COO"CIL APPROVES SCHEME. A special meeting of the Auckland City Council was held yesterday afternoon to discuss th<! exchange of propert v and privilege.-; proposed between the City Council and the Harbour Board in connection with iLhe extension >of Victoria Park. Some, two hours wore spent by the Council in committee in discussing the matter, and eventually it was decided to accept the proposal submitted by the Board' 3 special committee. \ The Ulayor, in explaining the Council's decision, said the transactions had resulted in good business /or both, parties, and for the publk. Both parties to the negotiations had wisely reeog- j iii.-cd that after all the Council and i the Board mpreae.ntcd the citizens, and there had cunseqnently been a satisfactory -spirit of give and take about the negotiations. The citizens of Auckland would benefit by gaining first of pll ten allotments ot the .souti-east corner of A'ictoria Park, which was the proper entrance place, being at the penny section -of the tramways. This meant that the area hitherto taken up by Packer Lamb ami Co. at the corner of Customs-street and Pat-teson-street went into the park proper. In addition, the citizens gained by the inclusion of tt narrow strip of some two acres on the northern (water side) frontage, and this Mr. Pearson, the landscape gardener, had informed the Mayor, would be a valuable acquisition in the way of extra playing spate. The removal of the small Inii]ding3 and shanties that iiotv line the eastern boundary, and the substitution of a wide thoroughfare, would also be advantageous from a. park point of view. k "o£ course, wo do not got these privileges without paving for them," continued the Mayor. "We, on our side, have agreed to find half the cost of OFanshawe-street, the new thoroughfare on £he north side of the park. We fctwe agreed to make the street, and pay half i&o cost, the Harbour Board finding the other half. Mr. Bush estijnates that this will run us into some £3000. The work will have to be done at once, and this means that there will shortly he a fine boulevard running along the -waterfront- The Board also takes some 200 ft of Cnstomsstreet, and ■Wβ hare agreed to allow the Board to make a street 66ft wide in front of the p trk, instead of 100 ft, as ;wa.s required by the old Victoria Park agreement. We further agree to take over Railway-street wSfhcmt requesting the Board to imrke any further improvement, and opportunity has been taken of settling the difficulty concerning the extension of the Meclianics' Bay sewer through the new reclamation, the outcome being that the Council at once makes the sewer at the Board' 3 expense. It should not be forgotten, of conise, that we are not getting the freehold of the land we are having added to the paxk, but -ive are getting it for 38 years, rent free. The present rental paid by the Council to the Board for Victoria Park is £700 per year. The Board also .sets the allotments in which we at present hold, in part consideration of the ten lots which were previously leased 'by Parker-Laimb and Co., and which we now take. I think it has been a fair deal for both parties, and both the Karfoour Board and the City Council are to be congratulated on the spirit in which it was put through."