NEW GOLF LINKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 July 1939, Page 11

NEW GOLF LINKS

AUCKLAND CITY

HUGE EXPENSE INVOLVED

HISTORY OF SITE

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day.

When the municipal golf links at Chamberlain Park, Auckland, were opened iy the Governor-General, Lord Galway, this afternoon, visitors saw a stretch of well-grassed undulating country developed as a first-class 18----hole golf course, where previously there was a stony waste covered with gorse and blackberry. The transformation of this area has gone on almost continuously since about the middle of 1934, and was completed on Tuesday with the surfacing of the entrance drive leading from the picturesque entrance gates on the Great North Road to the modern clubhouse overlooking the first tee.

The cost has been approximately £200,000, but more than £150,000 of this has come from the Employment Promotion Fund in the form of Government subsidies on the wages of the hundreds of relief workers engaged in taming this wilderness.

The property now known as Chamberlain Park was purchased by the Auckland City Council in 1884 as a water supply reserve, and formed the catchment area for the Western Springs pumping station until this source of city supply was abandoned. The area of 110 acres was bought for £10,791, but the transfer was subject to two leases covering ten acres of the land with a frontage to Western Springs Road. These leases had a currency of 999 years, and* the land today carries a number of dwellings and a church.

There have been many proposals for using the land, and in 1927 consideration was given to a scheme for subdividing it for building purposes, but it was found that the cost was likely to be prohibitive. Owing to the nearness to the^ surface of the blue rock, which practically extends over the whole area, it was estimated that roading would cost £37,000 and drainage £20,000, while the 375 sections which would be available would have a total value of about £75,000. PLAN FOR GOLF COURSE. Early in 1934, Mr. G. W. Hutchison, who was then Mayor, suggested that the property should be developed as a golf course, and it was decided to obtain the necessaiy technical advice. Accordingly, the services of Mr. C. H. Redhead, golf architect, of Rotorua, were secured, and before the end of April he reported that a r.eally firstclass 18-hole golf course could be constructed. He submitted a scheme in which full advantage had been taken of the natural features of the ground and a full-length course of 6000 yards was secured.

The introduction of the No. 5 relief scheme enabled the council to employ some hundreds of relief workers at vei-y little cost to itself. By June, 1937, the work of clearing away the massive rock formations and filling up the hollows was completed, and it was stated officially at that time that the cost had been £ 178,000,-the council's share of this being only £32,000.

TOTAL COST ABOUT £300,000.

Since that time much work has been done on the laying-out o.f the greens and the formation of bunkers. In addition, a handsome clubhouse has been erected at a cost of about £7500, including furnishings and equipment, a massive stone gateway has been erected on the site of the Old Stone Jug building, drives and pathways to the clubhouse have been laid down, and considerable filling and levelling have been done at the rear, of the clubhouse as a parking area for . cars, it is estimated that this additional work has brought the total cost up to about £200,000.