THE PROPOSED PRISON AT MOUNT COOK.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 93, 18 October 1881, Page 3

THE PROPOSED PRISON AT MOUNT COOK.

.» . TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST. ?Siß— What ia thiß I hear about making i penal settlement at Mount Cook Reserve fo the whole of the colony? What can onr Cit] Fathers be thinking of? Do th«y want t< ruin the whole of T« Aro ? A penal aettle ment forsooth, a monster jail in the ver^ centre of the Empire City, lor that is whai Mount Cook will eventually become. The idea i 3 monstrous. Why not, if they wani to do good to the city both now and here after, level the ground and sell it in building allotments ? There never has been, nor evei will be, a better chance of doing so than tht present. What more easy than to lay a lin< down Taranaki-street, take the ground from Mount Cook for the new reclamation of the Te Aro foreshore, and bo kill two birds with one stone, and save at the least (I should think) a good .£5,000 to the city ? Why, sir, the Monnt Cook Reserve contains close upon 14 acres, that as I said before, right in the centre of the city. What would that be worth in five or ten years' time if worked as]! have suggested ? It is not because we are now labouring under a state of depression that we are always going to bo the same; no. Sir, there h a big future for Wellington if only moderate care is taken in the laying out of our money at tho prestnt. Bnt the idea of making a prison of valuable property like this reserve— bah ; the thought of it makes me sick. What are the ratepayers of Wellington thinking of to suffer Buch a thing ? Well, Sir, I will Bay no more j> st now, but hope you will ventilate the subject bo that we may have the ideas of others as well as my own. I am, &c, A Resident Ratepayer.