AN END OF THE SESSION SCANDAL

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 321, 7 October 1908, Page 6

AN END OF THE SESSION SCANDAL

EtitiiNGTON 1 citizcns have twenty-four hours or less in which'to let the Government know whether or not they are going to tamely submit to another-shameful injustice in connection with misappropriation of a large section of the original Town Belt Reserve. In a recent article we drew attention to the fact that mc Seddon Government had taken portion bf the. city's reserves for the purpose of ii big-gtiri battery, and when the ba.;.ry project had been abandoned had refused to return to tlie citizens of Wellington f;he property taken from them. Now a graver scandal is proposed to be perpetrated. Many years ago some fifty odd acres of the city's Town Belt were taken by the then Government for the piirpose of mental and other hospital buildings. In those days the city was comparatively small, tho necessity for breathing spaces was hardly thbught of, and the land was taken for the purpose named, without the public showing any fconcerh. Now the Government has decided to remove the Mental Hospital, and the land will thus become freed from the purpose for which it was taken. It would be expected, under ordinary circumstances, that the Government would allow it to revert-to the good purpose for which it was originally set aside. But nothing of the kind is proposed to be done. Taking advantage of the necessities of the Hospital Trustees in the matter of a Fever Hospital site, the Government proposes to mafie an exchange with the Trustees of part of this land for other land held by tho TrusJees. In this transaction tho Government has driven a hard bargain—bad enough in itself; But the gravity of the scandal lies in the fact that it is proposed to ciit up the balance of the reserve—some 50 acres—for the purpose ■ of erecting workmen's homes. Forty years ago the far-sighted public 'men of that day saw the necessity for setting aside these reserves for breathing spaces for a future great city. To-day, when that city has made rapid strides towards the greatness Anticipated for it, and when the necessity for preserving what remains of the original grants is more apparent than ever, a Government is found so shortsighted, or so callous concerning' tho future generation, as to wish to despoil the community in the manner stated. Wellington has been so long-suffering in the matter of the filching of its reserves that the Government apparently assumes that it is quite indifferent on the inject. When the Bill embodying the proposal, came before the House yesterday the Wellington members showed unmistakably their views on the question, and entered a protest which at least should serve t6 awaken Ministers to a sense of the wrong they propose to indict on the city, and should arouse citizens to a sense of their responsibility in the mailer. The Government may not have given Llio question the full consideration it dc- j serves, but it has an opportunity oi re- [

moving a reproach which has long rested on the Liberal party in its attitude towards this city, and we yet hope to see Sir Joseph Ward seize it. To. return tho reserve, under proper safeguards, to the citizens of Wellington—now that the purpose for which it was taken no longer exists—would not only be doing what is right and just, but would be making a provision for the future ■well-being of the community which must stand to the. Prime Minister's credit for all timfc.