PRESERVATION OF BEAUTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 193, 17 August 1931, Page 6

PRESERVATION OF BEAUTY.

What is the value of beauty? It cannot be counted out in coin of the realm, but while older and wiser ]ands do everything possible to retain their beauty spots, we in Auckland are letting them slip from us without a thought to the future. The beauty of the harbour is passing. What with, tide deflectors, and reclamations on every hand, Auckland's wonderfully beautiful harbour looks as if it will shortly be a well-regulated ditch. What is the joy of the Auckland Harbour above other harbours? Wellington has a grand arm of the sea around her, Lyttelton has a splendid stretch of land-locked water, and Dunedin has the beautiful, but dredged channel. Auckland alone has her little shoaling bays, and these are being filched from her bit by bit. When the mind turns to Sydney, with her harbour walls crowned with splendid homes and gigantic flats, and then looks _at Stanley Point, Devonport and Ba-yswater, it is easy to see what value thetse heights above clear water will have in the future yet the shoal bays are one by one being filled in. What prevents a stopbank being erected from Stanley Point across to Bayswater, with flood gates, thus turning this splendid sheet of water into an aquatic sports ground? Here could be •held the rowing races of the future; here the model yachts could be sailed. Other towns have large model yacht clubs, why not Auckland? Other towns have ornamental water a beautv in which Auckland is strangely deficient, and if only for healths sake and as safe water playgrounds for the children, all these bays should be made ■ into lakee, which would lend to Auckland a beauty that would be unicme in New Zealand. At present the city i s small but ? O ° mS krge and *ate ply grounds will breed a race of baby seafarers who otherwise, ae the city pushes the sea fnJf-h and further hack, will be deprived J heritage Sports grounds can g£& f n *** places, but the beautiful water bays of JEST W once gone are gone f or e veJf ZtteM beauty has much monetary value and •Vα i —E.SJ. ,