LAKE PROPOSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 191, 14 August 1930, Page 9

LAKE PROPOSED.

FUTURE OF HOBSON BtfY.

BEAUTIFICATION SCHEME

RECLAMATION OF TIDAL AREA

; The reclamation 'of', the /inner, portion of Hbbsou Bay, which is. bounded by Shore Road, is proposed in a scheme that is to be submitted to the Parks' Committee of the Auckland City Council on Tuesday next by the Hobson Bay Beautifying Society. The outstanding feature of the scheme is a- tidal lake fed by a flood gate. There have been several' proposals relative to ; , the disposal of the Hobson Bay area, and all have something to commend them. One made recently by the Hobson Bay Preservation Committee concerned the reclamation of all the present mud flat in order to provide a home for future exhibitions, possibly a showground, and more playing areas. Thirty Acres of Park.

The latest scheme is that the City Council should take, over the control of Hobson Bay from the Auckland Harbour Board with a view to its development. It is pointed out by the Beautifying Society that there is a sum of £6000 on deposit with the Harbour Board to liquidate/claims for loss of riparian rights, and for the blockage in of. the sewer. The society lias allowed an area for a park in their plan, portion of which hot above high water could be gradually reclaimed. They estimated this area, at 30 acres. The park is bounded on both sides ■by public .roads, so that the plan involves no liability for riparian rights. The expenditure of the £6000 would be sufficient' to construct a road along ' the line of the existing sewer, thus giving needed excess between Victoria Avenue and Parnell. It it felt by members of the society, that the formation of a salt water lake and park at Hobson Bay (provision for which is made) would be of enormous benefit to the whole, of Auckland. ■

, The scheme of the society differs from that; tendered by the preservation'-.com-mittee, in, that it is not intended to,fill in the entire mud-flat. The" committee favour the' reclaiming of all that comer

of the bay that lies inside the sewer, from Parn'ell to the point of land below Burwood Crescent, Reinucra. fyiisfigurement in Recent Years. g'here was a time —only a few years ago—when Hobson Bay at high water was a picturesque portion of Auckland Harbour. Oh the Parnell side, and at the foot of A 7 ictoria Avenue (then known as Wilson's Beach) there were sandy beaches much frequented by bathers and picknickers. Auckland's big sewer gave the first disfiguring touch to the bay. Next came the construction of the eastern railway outlet diagonally across the bay, and coineidently an outer barrier, the building of the waterfront road across the mouth of. the bay to link the eastern harbour suburbs. How to deal, with the segments of the bay that ate left has been a subject of fruitful ■ discussion. With consistent enterprise the Railway Department suggested that a fine area of iiat land could be made available for one of those smoky storehouses for engines. Aesthetic Auckiaiid frowned severely at the idea, and from residents on the waterfront of the bay and Remuera came an insistent ■ request that beautification should play a prominent part in any scheme of the future.