The Evening Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1910.

Evening Star, Issue 14535, 10 December 1910, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1910.

Eighteen years ago the Parliament of New Zealand approved

Lost and passed into law tho Opportunities. Ocean Beach Public Domain Act. which, among other things, empowered the Hoard it created—

1. To build, erect, or acquire baths and to extend those already constructed and vested in the Board.

2. To protect and secure the said laud from invasion or injury by the sea or winds.

3. To plant trees, shrubs, grass, or herbage, and otherwise improve tho same.

4. To lay out roads, paths, and places therein, and to execute till such works as may bo conducive to the objects with which this trust is created.

Nor was the Legislature content to follow the precedent established by the men of ancient. Egypt, who compelled, their bondsmen to make bricks without straw. Parliament made liberal provision for racing the money necessary to carry out tho work entrusted to the Board. Power was given to borrow sums not exceeding £IO,OOO, and subsequently, in 1901, an amendment to the local Act of 1892 entrusted tho Dunedin Ocean Beach. Domain Board with yet further powers, including the protection of low-lying lands from sea and eand invasion, the right to purchase, land, etc., increased the borrowing authority to £20,000, and gave power to strike a throe-farthings rate. Here, then, the citizens had at their call an Act conferring the -widest, most generous, and far-reaching powers for improving, beautifying, and perfecting one of the richest possessions that a bounteous Nature has placed at the use and service of the citizens of Dunedin and the, surrourxliiiig boroughs, '['hero is absolutely no bar, within the financial limits fixed by the legislature, to what can be done, (liven a Board of resourceful, patriotic, and enterprising members, the St. Clair and Ocean Beaches and the adjacent hillsides and sandhills might easily have been made objects of fightliness, pleasure, benefit, and profit. The accuracy and moderation of our ftatement will not be questioned by any who have taken the trouble, to ascertain tho facts. Vet the melancholy truth remains that at the end of eighteen years the conditions ruling at St. Clair constitute a serious reflection upon the competency of the Ocean Beach. Domain Board, and indirectly upon the ability of the citizens of Greater Dunedin, to utilise, even to a modest degree, the powers that Parliament has, with too easy confidence, placed in their hands. What excuse have tho Board to offer the public by way of vindication? What can they plead which, under the most liberal interpretation of their duty as members of a public body, would be regarded as a plausible justification for their inaction? They have erected groins—on tho utility of which there is serious difference of expert opinion; and have planted lupines and marram grass. But where are "the roads and the paths and tho places therein" which they are empowered to make ? Where, are the provisions for a constant supply of healthful amusements? WTiere the parade, tho esplanade, the seats, the kiosks, tho shelters, tho score or so of simple utilities 1 and conveniences that could have been ! provided, and that are supplied by cities I with less pretensions -than ours and no ! greater facilities to carry them to fruition, ! and with not a tithe of our advantages? Let tho report of the business proceedings I of the meeting of the Board on Thursday I night furnish an answer. It was then j resolved, on the motion of Mr-..WMe>

That a doptttation from the Board wait On tho Hon. J. A. Millar (Minister of Marino) when he next visits Dunedin, with a view to liis assisting us in carrying out a general scheme ct' improvement at the Sandhills.

This, in all seriousness and sobriety, represents the crown and consummation of tho Ocean Boaeh Domain Board's achievements after a long and eomewhat inglorious rule of eighteen years. Of what avail has it been that tho Legislature h3s given to the citizens an Act to enable them to carryout certain works, and supplied the means of obtaining the necessary funds for their accomplishment, when all tho Board arc ablo to do at this hour of the day in to ask tho Minister of Marine, when he is next in Dunodiu, to visit tho Ocean Beach, lake a look round, and assist them to formulate a scheme for the improvement of the Sandhills! Wo presume that by "assistance-" is meant " cash assistance," and we very much mistake tho character of the Minister if ho will commit himself to anything so foolish, uncalled for, and out of place. The policy of the Bpard, as expressed in the above resolution, is past finding' out. What that policy ought to be, however, is plain to everyone who has examined tho terras of the Act by which the Board were called into being. All they have to do is to realise those terms without further delay, or elso give place to those who will. Tliis and no other is tho answer to the Domain Board's do-nothing policy; and this, we believe, is the answer they are likely to receive from fno .Minister of Marine. There has been in the past too much useless negotiating and deputationising and interviewing. If the work of tho Board is to continue on similar lines, the present and the next generation will have passed away at a ripe old ago .without living to witness an ocean-front embankment, a level esplanade, or a sheltered scat. We protest against this make-believe administration and this persistent playing with a question that affects the healthy recreations; and enjoyments of the masses of our citiiens, and blocks the way to a permanent and ever-growing source of revenue. What, then, can be done? To look for a hvo policy from the present Board is, we aro afraid, to Koarch for figs on thistles. The citizens must take the 'mailer into their own hands. Let Uioe who have a live, interest iu the question courtitutc Ihemsolve.; a vigilance committee, and arrange for the nomination and election a few month.; hence of candidates fiom Duncdin and the suburban boroughs who will bo in harmony and close sympathy with their own viowe. The City needs and can secure men who aro determined no longer to regard and treat (he Act as a dead letter, but as a verv real and pot-ent instrument for con verting the Ocean and St. Clair Beaches from their neglected and baneu tondilion into one of the most attractive seaside resorts and remunerative investments in tho Southern Hemisphere.