The Battle of the Sites

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 301, 16 September 1936, Page 11

The Battle of the Sites

Sir, —Having travelled fairly extensively at different times, I am frequently asked where I would permanently reside if given the choice, and my invariable reply is that if I cannot live in London, New York or Sydney, then let me live in Wellington. Some visitor recently said that Wellington had no civic pride, and nothing could be truer. What, then, is the appeal and magnetism of Wellington? We know all about its native beauty and its natural advantages, but to the average man that is not the attraction, while it is certainly not in the beauty of its streets, for some of the approaches to suburban areas are a disgrace and reproach to the city. As a young man 1 arrived in Wellington in 1888 with my parents and we took up our residence in Hobson Street. The immediate surroundings were all t that could be desired, but the approaches either by way of Molesworth Street or Thorndon Quay were in most parts appalling. Fraser’s Lane has since disappeared, but most of the old hotels and buildings in both streets still stand. These should have been swept away years ago. Adelaide Road (lower) has scarcely altered, and the footpaths on either side of the street when I last visited that part were disgraceful. It is true that the various reclamation works which have been completed in the past 45 years are a credit to the city, but such works have always been the creation of men with a greater commercial mentality than civic pride. What, then, is the lure of Wellington? The greatest is in its cosmopolitan population and the consequent lack of that narrow parochialism to he found in the other New Zealand cities. Even though the residents of the city may be largely derived from former citizens of Auckland, Canterbury, West Coast, Otago and so on it is a rare thing to find these residents wanting to return permanently to their native towns. Many other reasons could be given, but your space is valuable.' The greatest opportunity to make amends for our previous shortcomings in civic pride is now at hand. There should be no two ideas as to the site for the exhibition. Te Aro. flats is the only one. Any person knowing Sydney before arid after the Campbell Street area and Paddy’s markets were demolished must realise now what must happen to Haining, Tory and Taranaki Streets, also Martin Place and that environment. Nothing short of the demolition of the area is worthy of a moment’s consideration. Ways and means have always been found to reclaim the large areas on the waterfront, and I cannot believe that there are not men to be found to-day who could solve the problem of ways and means of exterminating that blot on our capital city—the alums of the Te Aro flats. London. New York and Sydney each has plans for eliminating existing slum areas, at a cost of millions of pounds, yet we are starting to quibble about settling once and for all what must eventually be the most valuable portion of Wellington.—l am, etc., T. S. COOK. Hunterville, September 14.