POINT ERIN PARK.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1314, 18 December 1911, Page 4

POINT ERIN PARK.

AUCKLAND'S NEW DOMAIN. (By TelOEranb,— Press Association.) Auckland, December 17. Point Erin Park recently acquired by the City Council from thn Cauiplrell Trustees, was publicly olioni'il by tho Mayor of Auckland yesterday. There wns § a largo attendance of the public and visiting ollicials, who are in Auckland in connection ivit'll the opening of the. Town Hall. Tho park ha:, access to a line sea beach, and a contract has been let for sea baths on an adjacent site. Jn thn course of his speech the Mayor said that the city could not have too many "lungs" nowadays. 4 Thry heard much about physical deterioration, and ho believed that the greatest evil prevailing in England to-day was not, so much tho (jcrmiin peril, or tho yellow peril, but the peril of degeneration. There could be no doubt that_ this was seriously nfl'ncting Iho physical efficiency of the. nation, and in o smaller measure tho saluo evil threatened us in this new land. They had only to look behind them at tho thickly populated suburbs of I'oiiionby and Grey Lynn, where. 20,000 people were crowded together in a few square miles. What chances had the worker's wife and child under such conditions: . What Was tho o.iin.\ J In his opinion tho bo.-t way was to provide open spaces wherever possible, where the citizens might breathe Heaven's fresh air, who'-p the. housewife might picnic with her children, and where tin: little i.iie* might receive their heritage, of play. This had been ill his mind for :i long lime In regard to Point Viiiu Park, no playing grounds in Auckland would bo iiioro used by the women anil children of our working eommniiily. He wished lo >tatnp it now and for all time as a women's .ind children's playground.