AUCKLAND'S CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL PARK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 63, 15 March 1944, Page 4

AUCKLAND'S CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL PARK

THE suggestion that the donors of land for the Auckland Centennial Memorial Park in the Waitakere Ranges should have representation on the control board is deserving of support. The park will be one of the city's greatest'recreation and recreative centres in the future, and its development is of high importance. The men who have so generouslycome to the assistance of the board by donating, in the aggregate, hundreds of acres 'to the area have proved the depth of their interest. They have the intimate knowledge of long association with the potentialities of the area, and their guidance will prove invaluable in the early stages of development. The ratepayers have the inalienable right to say what amounts of money shall be raised for the improvement of the park, and how it shall be spent, but none of them would resent either the advice or the representation on the board of the men who have made possible the best use of the amenities which Nature has so lavishly placed at the disposal of the people. The rates for the park amount to one-hundredth of a penny in the pound of land value; apart from that, the total funds now available amount to £15,000, of which £3750 was provided by Government subsidy. Thus no individual ratepayer has been called upon to spend very much on the park, and there would be few unwilling to agree to the stimulus to improvement which would be afforded by membership on the board of men who have really dipped into their assets for the benefit of the community.