EVANS BAY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 28, 1 August 1929, Page 15

EVANS BAY

COUNCIL AND BOARD

A COMMITTEE SET UP

THE ACT OF 1903

Though tho City Council has not discussed the question of tho reclaiming of the head of Evans Bay in open meeting recently it has given the matter attention in committee, and has set up a special committee, consisting of the Mayor, Mr. G. A. Troup, and Council lors Wright, forsyth, Luckie, and Seni pie, to interview the Harbour Board and endeavour to reach a definite under standing.

As has been made clear, certain councillors are strongly of the opinion chat, in view of the vast change in cou ditions about the bay in the .went} odd years since the scheme was pui forward, the reclamation should uoi be proceeded with, particularly as, they uolU, the board would undertake tSiwork not so much to give harbour faci lities as to create: endowments of great value to the board. They arguithat, however attractive might have been the prospects of the establishment of an industrial area in the bay when the land about was practically empty, to establish factories there to-day, when every available section carries a residence, would bo directly contrary to the first principles of town planning, and, furthermore, that the reclamation would wipe out Wellington's safest swimming area. To which contentions the supporters of the scheme will argue th-t the scheme was tlio council's, not the board's .scheme, that tho fostering of industry still holds sway over townplanning considerations.

It is the bathing area question which has particularly concerned the council in the past, and will no doubt be one of the first points referred to by the committee set up to interview tho board, though, in the opinion of the majority of residents about tho bay, and some councillors, it is not the main question, which is one of town planning. Though at various times unofficial assurances haye been given that the bathing facilities will bo safeguarded/ there is nothing on paper in that regard, at any rate, nothing final. The question is apparently complicated by considerations of the transferring of tho land which was once the lhorndon esplanade to the Harbour Board to be embodied in tho Thorndon reclamation. Bargaining between local bodies upon such transactions as this is invariably a long and intricate business, and the trading of so much dry land for so much wet water, to be reserved as a bathing area enclosed in a reclaimed area, presents unusual opportunities for negotiation. i BOARD HAS DEFINITE RIOHTS.

By special Acts of 1907 and 1908, the Harbour Board was given certain definite rights as to reclamation. The City Council has no power to demand special consideration in regard to the proposed reclamation, and soemingly anything that may bo granted to the council, and the city, in the matter of. swimming facilities or other reclamation area, will be granted as a concession, not as a right.

It was made plain by tho Minister of Marino (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe); when replying in tho House yesterday afternoon to a question from Councillor R. Semple, M.P., as to whether tho Minister would take the ncces-

sary steps to prevent the Harbour Board from destroying .Evans Bay as a recreation and bathing area by the erection of retaining walls and thereby demolishing the foreshore, that "it is not competent for the Government to intervene in the matter"— i.e., as between the board and the council in their agreement that the

reclamation should proceed.

Quite a number 01 people are under the impression that the head of the bay when reclaimed will be handed over to the city for recreation purposes, football" and cricket grounds, and bo on, but this has never been suggested, either by the board or the council. The Harbour Board granted to the city rights to reclaim that area which is now the Kilbiruie recreation ground— still not completed—and a most valued and appreciated recreation ground this is, but the major reclamation will be strictly a busiaess proposition. ORIGIN OF SCHEME. It is twenty-two years since the Wellington City council forwarded to the Wellington Harbour Board a resolution suggesting that joint inquiry should be made by the council and the board into the Possibilities of fostering industrial enterprise in Wellington, and that special consideration bt given to the desirability of reclaiming the foreshore at Evans Bay, "such reclamation to be cumpre liensive enough to provide for gasworks, ship and boat building, sawmilhng, and any other desirable industri s, together with wharves for the cheap manipula tion of the services of the industrial concerns and the erection of an up to date power-house and equipment for the generation and sale of energy at the lowest possible rate to consumers, thus enabling manufacturers to develop and compete in the markets of the colonies and elsewhere."

The proposed joint inquiry was held and the reclamation suggestion approved. A decision was reached that a Bill should be drawn up by the board, which Bill was to receive the support of 'the City Council, but as the two bodies failed to agree to the council's claim for rates upon reclaimed land:— as against the board's contention that rates should bo levied upon only such areas as were leased—the council dropped out of the picture, its place being taken by the Miramar Borough Council, in 1908. A lengthy deed of agreement was drawn up between these two bodies, setting out the obligations of one to the other.

HOW WIDE ARE THE POWERS

GIVEN?

In 1908 tho Wellington Harbour Board Reclamation, and Empowering Bill was placed, before the House and was passed without, apparently, any great amount of discussion upon the proposals embodied in the Bill, though questions of procedure occupied members at some length. The clause of chief interest at tho moment is clause 4: The lands described in the fourth and fifth scholudes hereto shall vest in the board, and the board may from time to time . . . reclaim the

said lands from the sea

The fourth and fifth schedules set out "portions of tno Bed of' tho harbour of Port Nicholson, situated in Evans Bay," containing areas of 128 acres 3 roods, and 28 acres respectively, a total area of 156$ acres.

The right of the board under the Act of 1908 to reclaim this area of 156£ acres is quite clear, but there is a later clause in the Act, clause 9, which is not so clear iv meaning:

All lauds acquired by'the board under this Act and the lands described in the sixth and soventh schedules heroto shall vest in the board for the purposes for which the board is constituted subject to the provisions of this Act. . . ... : Tho sixth schedule' attached to the

Act names an area of 69 acres, and the seventh schedule an area of 245 acres o roods, a total of 314J acres. If clause 9 is to bo interpreted to mean that the board has powers of, reclamation over these additional areas of seabottom, as well as over the 1513J acres mentioned above, the ultimate reclamation, assuming that the scheme is economically feasible, might bite out almost half the bay, running east and west from about the Miramar Wharf, and south to north far to the west of the present shore line, and placing the Patent Slip well inland. It does not appear that such a great scheme is under contemplation by the board, though the meaning of clause 3 is nevertheless of much importance, and will no doubt be inquired into by the committee of tho council set up to wait upon the Harbour Board.