"REST PARK" AT ISLAND BAY

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 87, 9 October 1920, Page 10

"REST PARK" AT ISLAND BAY

PROTEST AGAINST GOLF LINKS.

A deputation from the Island Bay Ratepayers' Association waited on the Reserves Committee of the City Council this week relative to a promise made by the committee in March, 1915, to recommend the construction of a park on the city reserve lying on the east side of the tram line between Bsrhampore and Island Bay The deputation stated that draft plans Were prepared showing a lay out for a park which, they contended, would ultimately be one of the prettiest and most useful in Greater Wellington. The area of the proposed park was between 10 and 15 acres, of rolling downs, charming hollows, creeks, and a considerable amount of flat land. But the deputation complained that the City Council had already, at the request of the golfer, commenced to form the area into golf links, and, on behalf of the residents of Berhampore and Island Bay, and the citizens generally, the deputation put in a strong protest against the departure, from the original scheme. They contended that the area was definitely promised, not for a sports ground, but for the use of the ■whole body of citizens, and more especially as a rest part for women and children; that ths giving over of the area for golf would absolutely spoil the park scheme, besides rendering it a source of danger to children playing in the area. The deputation also urged that the association should have been informed of the change in the council's intentions, seeing that it had kept the matter before the council by deputations from 1916 to the present time, and that what was described as "the promised park" would be the. only one suitable for the use of children between the Basin Reserve and the sea at Island Bay. The deputation further urged that there was room for golf beyond the area, on the Town Belt, and "that there was no reason why the land in question should be devoted to the interests of a few hundred people when it was urgently needed for thousands of people who did not play golf.

As a result of the deputation's representations, the Reserves Committee yes terday paid a visit of 5 inspection to the locality, and' it will report to the City Council in due course.