USE OF HAGLEY PARK

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25547, 15 July 1948, Page 3

USE OF HAGLEY PARK

COUNCIL’S DECISION ATTACKED CRITICISM BY CANTERBURY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY “Though it is customary not to touch on controversial matters in this column, there are occasions when it is our duty to break this rule, and in

this connexion there is nothing that stirs us so much aS proposals to lessen the value of the priceless heritage of beauty in broad acres bequeathed to the city by the pioneers of Canterbury who planned so wisely.” says the “City Beautiful,” the magazine of the Canterbury Horticultural Society, in an editorial attacking the Christchurch City Council’s intention to set aside an area of six acres of Haglev P a £ k for use as a sports ground by the students of Canterbury University College, and the proposal to build a temporary town hall in Hagley Park. “During the past few weeks there have been two such suggestions, one of which, alas, appears to have gone beyond the stage of being a mere suggestion. Already there are too many acres of this park where its owners may not go without being branded as trespassers,” states the article. “About the year 1850 ‘The Times,’ London, referred to the proposed settlement at Christchurch as ‘a slice of England, from top to bottom, transferred to the Antipodes,’ and history records that Hagley Park was one of the most notable ‘slices’ in that it was named after the estate of Lord Lyttelton, and even to the planting of trees, the presence of the Avon River, and the general size and shape of the park, it is as nearly as possible a replica of ‘Hagley.’ Even if this is not strictly accurate in all details, it is a pleasant thought and should be inspiring enough to restrain citizens with pride in their citizenship from making raids on the park. Let us hope that the guiding principle will be that Hagley Park belongs to the people of Christchurch as a whole and not to selected or special groups of people to the exclusion of all others,” the article concludes.