WORTH SAVING

Evening Post, Issue 67, 17 September 1934, Page 10

WORTH SAVING

HAYWARDS BUSH

A CHARMING RESERVE

DANGER OF FIRE

About ten years ago Mrs. W. 11. George gave to the city au area of about 140 acres of bush and grass laud at Hnywards, llutfc Valley, to bo held as a public park in memory of her sou, Keith George, who lost his life in the

war. The gift was accepted and .the area ivas fenced off ljy the Reserves Department and made known as the Keith George Memorial Park, but, truth to tell, thp City Council did not sec exactly how the new reserve could be made accessible, for there was then no roadway except through privatelyowned land, though the owners vcfc generous in granting a free way. Several suggestions were made for the opening of the reserve to the public, but they came to nothing, and generally the park, which is a very charming place in the summer, has not come in for very much official notice for somo yoars past. Now that the Western Hutt Boad is being built the access problem is solved and so easily reached will the area be —within forty minutes' motor run from Wellington— that its preservation from fire will become important.

Adjoining the Memorial Park lo the north is a larger block of native forest under the control of the' Lands and Survey Department, and there is also a third small block, of about four j acres, given some years ago by Mr. George to the V.M.C.A. as a summer camping ground. The Government block has, for all practical purposes, been inaccessible to the public and is untouched native bush, clothing a hill rising steeply from the river. \Thc combined area is the finest area of bush within many miles of Wellington. Probably the only other area to improve upon it is the bush covering the .city waterworks reserves at Wainui and the Orongorongo, but as far.as public use goes this bush does not exist, for it is closed to all but officials and an occasional guest. The Western Hutt Boad will leave traffic direct to the Government block, and in some lengths it will be necessary to cut into the bush hillside to form the roadway. More visitors mean more fire'risk, and though the bush has looked after itself up till now, with occasional small fires, probably from sparks from railway locomotives, it is felt that that will not do in future. "" % SUGGESTED FIRE DISTRICT. Councillor'J. Burns, chairman- of the reserves committee of the City Council, and others interested in tho new developments have gone into means of safeguarding the bush area and have come to the conclusion that it can best be done by having the reserve declared a fire district. Under. the regulations a firo'district must be at least 300 acres in area, and if the council, the Government, and the V.M.C.A. blocks are treated as forming one.district the declaration can bo made. Councillor Burns said today that tho i negotiations so far had been very pro-' raising and he thought that. a. satisfactory arrangement could be made whereby some measure'of control could be exercised, for the safeguarding of the bush lands. There were several aspects still to bo looked into; for instance, tho proposal that such lands should, be subject to rating. If the City Council was going to bo billecl heavily for its reserve at Haywards then he doubted whether it would favour spending money on control, "but he did think that the, area was too' valuable to be exposed to risks of destruction without somo system of supervision. .

Councillor Burns said that the declaring of an area as a fire district forbade the lighting of- fires within the boundaries except with the authority of! tho controlling body. In ,the case of large picnic-parties it might be possible to require them, to notify the council and. obtain authority to light fires, but it would be very difficult, and annoying, to try to check car parties who decided upon a. run: to Hay wards and boiled the billy when they got there. Practically, the solution would be to provide safe fireplaces and to insist that fires should not be lighted anywhere else, in_ which the public, nowadays appreciative of what little native forest there'is left, would surely agree. Probably /t would also be advisable to have someone on duty on days when numerous visitors might brinjf an extra fire risk, as on public holidays and fine Sundays. No matter | how careful Hie pulilie might be, Councillor Burns added, there was always some risk of fire from" railway | engines. . . i Provided that the cost was witlun reason, he thought, that it would be j very well worth while to safeguard the j bush area, and there was a possibility that some revenue would be forthcoming from picnic parties, though there j was no prospective revenue from the! hundreds of car parties who would use tho. beauty spot, when the road was opened. I Councillors Burns, C. H. Chapman, M.P., and L. MeKe'nzic aro inquiring into 'tho matter further.