SCORCHING BAY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 288, 1 September 1931, Page 11

SCORCHING BAY

City Council in Control

The Wellington City Council has been appointed a Domain Board for the control of Scorching Bay, but so far Ibis pretty little place gives no outward sign of the change of administration Seonhing Buy is one of the most attractive hays on. the city side of the harbour. It can be reached by motci-car in twenty minutes from the city, and offers a fairly extensive, safe bathing bench, quite sheltered from the northerly winds. It was called Scorching Bay as It was considered one of the warmest spots near Wellington in summertime in the old days. It was said that when the wool from lower Wairarapa stations was brought ' into Wellington by whale boats in the early days the cargoes often sustained a drenching in making the harbour entrance, and it was to Scorching Bay they were taken to “dry off” before coming into the city. For many/-years Scorching Bay was part of the Defence reserve, lying right under the obsolete Fort Ballance, on the bluff to the north of the bay, and was included in the area closed to the public during and for some time after the war. « There are about twenty shacks and “baches” in the bay, the owners of which have in the past paid an annual peppercorn rental, and which are there on sufferance. What the Council, as the Domain Board intends to do with the bay has not yet been determined, but the spot lends Itself to improvement, x and perhaps would provide really remunerative work under the No. 5 unemployment relief scheme.