CONCERN AT EXTENSION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 141, 11 December 1935, Page 12

CONCERN AT EXTENSION

LOSS OF PLAY AREAS

Local sports bodies are concerned over the possibility of losing much playing space through the City Council's proposal to enlarge the.Rongotai

aerodrome. It is not that the sports people are opposed to the proper facilities for aviation requirements but that the loss of play areas will create an acute position so far as the alreadylimited accommodation for outdoor games is concerned. Representations are being made to the civic authorities with a view to having the possible loss of playing grounds averted. The Rongotai and Lyall Bay Reserves, a considerable portion of which is to be' taken if the proposal to extend the aerodrome is carried out, are used extensively in summer for cricket and in winter for football.

The Wellington Rugby Union's concern was indicated at a meeting of that body's management committee last night. In drawing attention to the matter Mr. J. N. Millard (chairman) stated that as a body they were not interested in the controversy over aerodrome sites, except in so far as the choice might have a serious effect on the facilities for recreation of the people of the city. He thought, however, that the City Council should be asked not to take any action without going very fully into the question from every point of view.

"As one who has great admiration for the magnificent work that the present City Council and past councils have done in providing playing areas out of hills and gullies, and as chairman of the management committee of a body which controls the' administration of a game providing recreation for some 4000 men, youths, and boys weekly," said Mr. Millard, "I am naturally very concerned at the proposal to extend the Rongotai Aerodrome by absorbing the sports grounds in the Rongotai-Lyall Bay area. This proposal is going to affect sports bodies so vitally that I think we should ask the City Council to hold up the whole scheme until they have considered where their grounds of the future are to come from. The reserves department has gone to infinite trouble lo turn the Rongotai sandhills into football and cricket grounds, and summer and winter these grounds are not sufficient to accommodate the youth of the city. The only possible extension of the city's grounds was blocked by the laying-out of the present aerodrome, and now the council is proposing to cut in halves the big area known as the Lyall Bay and the Rongotai Reserves."

The committee decided, on the motion of Mr. G. F. W. Jackson, seconded by Mr. H. D. Morgan, to forward a protest to the City Council against the proposal to cut down the number of playing fields in the Rongo-tai-Lyall Bay area.