THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE BASIN RESERVE.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 132, 8 June 1881, Page 2

THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE BASIN RESERVE.

It is to be hoped that the City Council will promptly reject the motion which is to proposed at the next meeting by Councillor Greenfield, to the effect that the Basin Reserve be laid out as a pleasure park. A more ill-timed proposal, with less to commend it, can hardly be imagined. It practically means that the city shall be deprived of the only place in which cricket, football, and athletic sports generally, Can be indulged in. The people of Wellington are not so deficient in the national liking for manly sports of every kind that they will care to see this carried into effect. As it is, Wellington is unable to take the position in regard to the national game of cricket which she would otherwise do, because the means of practice in this city are so limited ; and it is, to say tbo least, rather hard on admirers and playerß of the game that even tho small patch of ground at present at their disposal should be taken away, while Christchurch, Auckland, and the other principal towns of New Zealand rejoice in tho possession of admirably-kept recreation reserves, ample enough for all requirements. It is not true that the Basin Reserve at present only serves for the recreation of the few. Thousands of people, in the course of the year, assemble on the ground to watch the games and sports takiDg place there, and derive the keenest enjoyment from so doing. Supposing Councillor Greenfield's proposal were adopted, and the reserve were laid out as a '¦ park," as it is grandiloquently termed, who would be benefitted by the change? The ground is far too small for any such purpose. A few nursemaids, with perambulators, might wander in there occasionally, but would soon abandon it when they fonnd that in that "cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd" space they could no more flirt, without undue publicity attending their proceedings, than they could in the front garden of a suburban villa. Little boys might also make it their happy hunting ground, and perpetrate experiments on the shrubs not at all conducive to the progress of arboriculture. These are about the only classes who would frequent tl<e "Park." The place, wo repeat, is far too small for the purpose, and there are other parts of the town which may be u-^ed as promonade3, while there is no other locality where cricket and other manly sports may be carried on, and witnessed by the public. Not only is the proposal excessively injudicious in itself, but it is especially ill-timed. The Council have just expended £160 in levelling the reserve for cricket and football, and an additional .£l5O in purchasthe grand-stand, both of which sums will be utterly thrown away if Councillor Greenfield's motion is carried. Tho Council, we know, are not always too careful in handling public money, but we do hope they will see the impropriety of stultifying themselves, and acting against the interests of the public in this particular instance.