PUBLIC DON'T CARE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 96, 23 April 1940, Page 15

PUBLIC DON'T CARE

RESERVE OR DOMAIN

All four parties to the purchase of Johnston's Hill as a bush reserve for public enjoyment have done their parts, .or are willing to do so. The joint committee of the Wellington Beautifying Society and the Karori Progressive Society has practically found the £750 it set out to find; the City Council is willing to find £1250 and the Government £500; the fourth party is willing to sell at the agreed price. However, the handing over is held up because the City Council has been advised that it cannot spend money on a property unless it is truly a city reserve, and the Government cannot vote money unless the reserve comes under' the Domains Act. The public, said Mr. H. S. B. Fletcher, chief early advocate of the purchase and a consistent and successful worker, at a meeting of the Beautifying Society last night, did not care whether it was called reserve or domain, so long as they could use it. The chairman, Captain S. S. Holm, said that statutory provision was to be made to find a way out of the difficulty, and in the meantime the amount collected (actually £746) could round itself out to the full £750.