DOMAIN IMPROVEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 138, 13 June 1934, Page 6

DOMAIN IMPROVEMENTS.

STILL UNDER CONSIDERATION.

(To tho Editor.)

One cannot but express one's grateful thanks to the donor of the £10,000 for his magnificent gesture. We do not as jet knowmuch about the suggested appropriation of this «reat gift, but it is to be hoped that nothing will be attempted to spoil the beauty of the° Domain and the simplicity of its approaches, which, in the opinion of a great many, should stand as a natural feature and thus a striking contrast to the hideousness of the walls and fences with' which civilisation bounds its streets.. The ugliness of the arch at Parnell Park is a reproach beyond question, and unfortunately, just as its lines were being somewhat relieved, Nature's saving garb has been torn away. The city engineer's plan and all it implies is being harshly judged in many quarters by people who have forgotten the reason for it. As a result of the discussion some two years ago the obvious lack of data was made manifest, and before the- special committee then set up by the City Council could consider the position it was agreed, with universal approval, that that data should bo got together. This, I take it, is the present position, and it now remains for the special committee to consider the matter. Until then, or the time that it asks for suggestions, the whole matter is sub judice, and all that is required is, as tou have already indicated, definite suggestions dealing with certain proposals constructively. If the donor of the £10,000 were to make the fund available for specific improvements, or even an endowment, very much good should result, without adding to the already ample evidences ofi man's and not Nature's handiwork in this treasured sanctuary. N. B- W. THOMAS.