THAT BANDSTAND

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3134, 12 July 1917, Page 8

THAT BANDSTAND

AND MID-CITV/ PRESERVES.

; - (-'Sylvius.") The little planted plots of ground within the business part of tho city havo never, been remarkable for thoir pictur- . esquencss. Those responsible for the upkeep of our city reserves .nover soom to have the correct idea as to how to get a. bright, cheerful oft'ect, such as has been achieved in the laying oiit of tho grounds of PaTlin.mentn.ry Buildings. Tho old "avenue" between Kent and Cambridge Terraces, was allowed to grow into the drabbest, seediest spot in tho city before one council, evidently with a littlo more spirit than the avorage, decided that it should bo replanned, and now wo Jiavo a heterogenous mixture oJE all sorts to mako up wlint all AVellington at one time called "the Avonue." Patches of grass, patches of asphalt, and patches of shnibl.|ery divide up tho "bois," and ere long a part of it is ,to bo given up to (lie tramways, so as to relievo the Courtenay Place slopping-plnce. The old-time iiictliod of planting a shrubbery, which in a few years becomes a dense- growth obscuring tho whole of tho ground, has passed away. lii Sydney 'there are islets of lawn here and there, framed in low rock walls, morely lines dividing tho street from tho: reserve. There may be a cactus or somo littlo flowering plnnls to brighten tho spot, but never closoly-ser, gloomy foliaged shrubs such as we have in Courtenay Tlaco and elsewhere.

Another woeful blot is that bandstand reserve in front of the Central Fire Brigade Station, n solid concrete' and timber structure, • which always seems to be apologising; for being in the way. To show the Vrilliance of idea in placing 1 a,.bandstand at such a streot junction, it might be as well to record that the last occasion upon which it was occupied was when the New Zealand Band (which subsequently toured B'njrland. under thn cmuluctorship of Lieut. T. Herd) played there in 1903. Tn all there have been about a dozen band performances given in it, showing the practicability and common sense of placing a rostrum for music on a, snot, at a street-junction, immediately before the doors of our principal fire station, iirnd flanked on one side In- a double line of tram rails and on Ihe other by a railway line. On one occasion it was used for a political purpose. It was after a big meeting in the Town TTall, at which feeling run high, and 0"e nf the candidates—T fancy it was Jlr. V. M. B. Fisher—jumped the fence, and delivered a speech from the door of the stand. Tt seemed like sacriT"«rc—it had remained so Ion? unused.. About a year :lgo it was promised 1«the City Council that tb» stand would V removed to Oriental Bav. ''Perhaps after the rains of winter hare consolidated the bandstand site in OHental Buy the structure will be Temoved from the position where it has been more of an ob«fnicljnn t"an. an ornament. At another time the site was suggested for the purpose of an ambulance station, but the suggestion neve materialised. Perhaps it would 1"> better to remove everyth'"". and wood-block the entire snace. T)i» alfernalive is the little green islet of grass, with the border of Tough Tocks.