ST, JOHN'S LAKE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1917, Page 4

ST, JOHN'S LAKE.

Tlie opposition to the acceptance of Mr. R. H. Abbott's gift of land at St. John's Ijike for a park is surprising. Mr. Parr's objections are two —that it would be better to preserve the lake, and that Mr. Abbott is financially interested, because the scheme would benefit his adjacent property. But that this adjacent land in which Mr. Abbott is interested may share in the benefit conferred on the whole city is surely no bar to the grateful acceptance of a proposal that will give the city a most valuable asset at a email cost. The owners of the land in the vicinity of the lake could quite easily develop their property without regard to public interests, and the city authorities in" the future might easily be compelled to pay an enormous sum in, order to secure a fraction of the advantages which are now offered to them' practically free. Under the circumstances,! therefore, we heartily agree with Mr. I Gunson thnt Mr. Abbott's offer is farsighted and generous, and one for which the public have every reason to be grateful. St. John's Lake is a not particularly attractive sheet of water of some sixty acres, completely surrounded by private lands. Tho public has therefore no access to it, and no material interest in it. and if it is to be made into a public lake land round it will have to be purchased. Adjacent to the lake is a considerable area of swamp land, over which population is spreading, and it is necessary in the interests of public health that this land should be drained

and made available for settlement. If I nothing is done to make a park there . the owners of the land surrounding St. John's Lake will sell the land for building purposes, the slopes will be settled npon, anil drainage from the houses will go into the lake. The drainage of land ' near by will lower the level of the lake , fully ten feet. Since seventeen feet is the j greatest depth of the lake, this drainage ! scheme will greatly reduce its area, and I the gmaller it gete the more noisome will lit become through drainage from houses :on the slopes. Mr. Abbott acquired from the Church lof England 100 acres surrounding the I lake on condition that he presented it Ito the city as a free gift for a public I park. The Church agrees to give a further area of land to enable a drive ! 100 feet wide to be constructed round the park. The whole agreement is subject to the consent of the Crown to the vesting in the City Council of the whole of the lake area of p.bout 63 acres. Including the area of the bed of tlie lake, tbe city will get an area of about 200 acres, and it will pay £2.500 for drainage of the lake and property near it, and the cost of making the park. It seems to us that this will be a very cheap bargain. Mr. Parr talks about swamp land in private bands being converted by tlie schpme into land worth £1.000 an acre. The estimate is exaggerated, but supposing we accept it, then the city will be acquiring, at the cost of a few thousand pounds, property worth .200,000. and Mr. Abbott's gift represents £100,000. Mr. Parr admits that it may be ungracious to look a gift horse in the mouth; to our mind he lavs altogether too much stress on the benefit that may accrue to private owners, and does not attach nearly enough import- ■ ance to the value of the scheme to the ' city of the future. j Admittedly, a park there is not re- | quirpd just yet: but it should not be long before the growth of population makes it very desirable that the natural advantages of this place should be so utilised, and in the meantime development can proceed slowly. The bed of the lake would makp a line recreation reserve. The Domain cricket ground, which, with its slopes on nearly all sides, is one of the most picturesque in the wrrld. was originally a swamp; Lake i St. John and its surroundings could he | made perhaps ev.n more useful and j beautiful. It is difficult in all the Remuera district to find a piece of level ground of any size, and here is the opportunity of getting a fine recreation ground for the district and the whole community. Ten acres or so of the deeper part of the lake could be preserved and beautified as an ornamental lake; we believe plans have already been made for this. The whole area lends itself more than most to beautiful treati ment. and in time St. John's park ' would become one of the most attraci live in the isthmus. ■ —