ORIENTAL BAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 534, 15 June 1909, Page 8

ORIENTAL BAY.

A SromBAN ELYSIUM IN THE .MAKING. . (By Btlvkjs.) , v "Sfoao and lights on the'summor e'en, Starry stairs to the Milky Way;. . Gleaming on laughter and lovers unseen; Giving your glory unto the B»y." Those who stag of and sigh Jar tiio East love to chant the beauty and oharm of HongKong with its towering terraces of lights rising tier above tier against the hiDs round the harbour. So it has been known that travellers coining into Wellington at night have involuntarily exclaimed: "How Gko Hong-Kong." The resemblance is not remote, and is becoming groateivas the houses creap nearer to the Milky Way above at Kelburne, ■ Eoseneath, and Oriental Bay. Most notable of all the pretty little bits of. Woirington that strike a stranger'arriving in the morning or the evening is Oriental Bay. • The special plea of the writer (unfortunately not a resident of the Bay) is to point out the poor effort that is being made to beautify. Wellington's most happily-srfcnated suburbj and "at the samo time to emphasise the opportunity, so far not sdzed, of making this sweet little cove the finest promenade in tiie Dominion.:/ Nature has been bounteous indeed to this sun-blessed spot. True, it is a mouth always open to tho norVostOT, but what of that? Tho wind, comes froeh' and clean off tho harbour; it is not polluted by :. the grimo and grit of the city. The sun shines there all day when working full time, tinting ite terrace rose pint at dawn, burnishing'bright its highest windows with its dying glow. noisy, , dirty, maiuifacturing part of tho city is shut out of its view, leaving an outlook on to the widest part of tbo harbour, the warship anchorage, and tho wharves. But it is not so much these wellknown attributes that need detailing, as the poverty of idea that is being displayed in the Oriental Bay improvement works. His One Speech. ' : Over a year ago Councillor W. Hales made bis one solitary speech in the City Council. He is a resident of Oriental Bay, and tho speech was about Oriental Bay. His advocacy resulted in a sum being included in the estimates .for a wall of some' kind, This resolved itself-.into a low toenail about,two or tbreofeet in height above the '. water (at ;high tide) and a'slanting mbblo wall to the level of tne road. Only that and nothing more! The City Engineer (Mr. W. H. Morton) was against such idea, let it be said to his credit,-but residents thought that if .this slanting wall was made tho children 'would be able to run down to tho beach without accident. That was all very well, but is that making the most , of a superb sweep of suburban foreshore, which lends itself bo, admirably to something so much nobler and better? Furthermore, the work, which seems .to have come to an end, only extends a couple of hundred yards into the bay from Fitzgerald's Point, and the bay itself/ or rather the beach and abutmerrte thereon, have as.ragged and unkempt an appearance as ever. See for yourself I What Is Needed. Oriental Bay is too great a hygienic asset, too valuable ts an.aesthetic adjunct to ithe city, to be tinkered with.. What is wanted is a broad' scheme of improving the foreshore between what is known as Fitzgerald's Point (below the Chapel of St. Gerard)\to Point Jerningbam. Tho'City Council has made tan excellent start on right linos in laying i out Clyde Quay,, and Inwould advise !:'the.,engineer not .to., -car. to parochial; chatter; but continue" the: broad sidewalk and cycle aud motor" track right round into.the bay itself. Before that crops up; however, a moderate'scheme of reclamation, should bo. planned that, will at once preserve tho contour of the bay, and provide, a parade wide enough to accommodate tho strollers, not of a city of 60',000 inhabitants, •" but'. of twice thatxnumber. : Having decided on the "-sweep" of tbo line,.the work of erecting a stout wall should bo commenced. Funds would not bo available to complete fho work at onco, but it could bo done bit by bit,, and as the two horns of tho w&ll Tieared each other tbo space'between them and the road could bo gradually reclaimed. The wall when completed should be about throe feet above the.footpath, which should run close as in the case of jClydo Quay. The Smellful Beach. - . Instead of a slanting rough rtono wall, on which children will be able to rip and tear their boots (and themselves), the top part of-the wall at least, should be straight, and in lien of a smellful beach the wall, would bo lapped by an ever-moving tide. Steps could bo built.in three or four places' along, the wall for the convenience , of boating parties. : It has been soggested that eigbteen-inch or two-feet wall, surmounted by iron rails, would meet the case, but I do not hold with tho idea.. There is something irritating in_ looking' through rails. (This I learned without consulting any of tho "Zoo" folk.) Rather do I favour the , three feet slopjng wall, as in the case of Farm Core, Sydney, the Marine Parade at Napier, and the Parade at St. Kilda, Molbourne. " . . ', I am not advocating that such a costly work should be rushed into at the present timo (having read Dr. Newman's remarks at the last council meeting), but I deprecate the fiddling work that has been done bo far-in 'thebay.andthofailuroof its residents to rise above tho idea that the ,bay should remain for ever tho playground of a few scoro of children. Oriental Bay is part of the city, and is moulded by nature for a glorious marine ■ parade. Most people are aware how few of such advantages Wellington stands possessed of, and yet this backwardness. Something • on the lines. I have suggested would, I am sure, be preferable to the present scheme,'ana would be a step in the long-delayed plan of city , beautification which Wellington-starves for. : •■■:,■<■)-■■'.: