FIRE STATION SITE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 112, 4 February 1933, Page 10

FIRE STATION SITE

Rocky Area Transformed

CLYDE QUAY SCHOOL

Sixty years ago the site of the Clyde Quay School, between Roxburgh Street and’ Clyde Quay, was a rocky and weed-grown space and a rubbish tip for the surrounding neighbourhood. At a more remote period it had been partly levelled, but the process had not been persisted in for across the centre were left small hillocks of bare rock, between which Were foot tracks used by people passing between the hillside, and the seafront. The space was native-owned, but the Maoris took no interest in if. However, as the neighbourhood grew both east and west of Clyde Quay, the space came under the notice of the Education Board as a prospective site for a primary school, a forty years’ lease being secured, with the right to purchase at the termination of the lease. Upon the date of the expiry of the lease, and before it arrived, the board intimated its intention to exercise its option. This meant that some eight, or nine years ago the board acquiied the 'central acre of land for a figure under £4OOO. Now the Wellington Eire Board has it under firm offer from the board at £25,000. and considers that at the price the block is a rare bargain,