THE CITY RESERVES.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7803, 5 March 1891, Page 3

THE CITY RESERVES.

TO THE EDITOR OV THE PBESS. - Sir,—At the last meeting of the Christchurch City Council an application waa received for a lease of a portion of the reserve between Cambridge terrace and the river Avon opposite the Young Men's Christian Association, for the purpose of the erection of a swimming bach, and the application was referred to the Reserves and Works Committee to report thereon. The applicant applies to have the lease granted at a nominal rental, and if this is conceded he proposes to nx the price to be charged to the public for the use of the bath at a nominal rate. He alto expresses his intention to supply the bath from a six-inch artesian well.

I take it chat under the circumstances any site near the centre of the city from whence drainage couldt>e readily obtataed to the river would be equally suitable/ for the intended object, and there are plenty of such sites available. The nominal rental being , evidently the inducement to establish the bath on a public reserve, I venture to suggest that the Gity Council should at once reject the application. Should they ovea be legally empowered to grant it, my contention is that the reserves throughout Chriutchurcn between the river and Cambridge and Oxford terraces respectively were never made with a view to their being utilised for. buildings. It is true that in one or two cases they have been so utilised, notably the frontage of Oxford terrace between the old mill and the Municipal buildings. Can anyone say that the buildings erected on this site are worthy of it? Are they not on the contrary an eyesore? Has not the value of the Clarendon Hotel site been materially reduced in value by their erection and maintenance? The view of the river is shut out completely, and the site for ever spoiled for residential purposes. 1C it is proper to grant the present application, why shonld not the whole of the reserve on b?th sides of the river from the Hospital to Ward's brewery be let for building purpose* wnerever there is room fur a building. Also extend the same principle to Park terrace. The broad grass promenade could be cub up in sections and let, no douOc, at a good rental, to tenants who would erect fourroomed cottages thereon, with the fronts to the river and the back premises abutting on the line of the road. I ask, in the interests of the citizens of Christchurch generally, 1* it advisable to iuterfere with these reserves further? They have been planted at some cost,, and are appreciated by the citizens; and, secondly, is ifc fair to those persons who have already built their houses on the mentioned with rirer frontage, or have purchased sections with a view of so building that their properly should be ruined as residential sites by the erection of baths, wash-houses, or other public conveniences, or nuisances, of a like nature opposite their frout windows. —Yours, &c, Citizen.