ANDERSON'S BAY INLET.

Evening Star, Issue 19857, 4 May 1928, Page 1

ANDERSON'S BAY INLET.

TO THE . EDITOR

Sir, —11 is with pleasure we read of .someone who brings before the public the menace of the Anderson’s Bay Inlet to the health of the public, particularly the children of the surrounding districts. This fud flat in its present state is an absolute breeding ground for disease. The octopuses are washed up, stranded, and loft to decay. 1 have watched this state of affairs for a good many years now. and the position is becoming undoubtedly worse. I hare travelled all over Now Zealand from Auckland to the Bluff periodically for years, and I have not seen anything approaching, such u filthy hole as this Anderson’s Bay Inlet; and I am sure this is not a fine asset for any, city to possess. I have seen the children coming down from the public homes on their way to school; they have to pass along this road strewn) with decaying octopuses. Surely this state of affairs is not to he tolerated much longer. What are our health officers doing to let this pass by their notice? I think this matter should have the most urgent attention from the people responsible.—l am, etc.. Disgusted. May TO tub EDITOR. Sir, —Your timely article,, followed by correspondents’ testimonies, certainly indicates a lamentable stale of affairs. From inquiries made it would appear (hat the responsible authority is the Harbour Board, which I understand has continually refused to do anything in any respect whatsoever as regards any reclamation work at the Bay, contending that to do so would interfere with the tidal scour. 1 am informed that the Anderson’s Bay Ratepayers’ Association some time ago even went so far as to have plans prepared by Mr E. Anscomhe, architect, for filling in part of the inlet, providing for children’s playgrounds, and when the plans were submitted to our wise men on the Harbour Board they refused to move, sheltering behind an alleged engineering opinion that to reclaim would interfere with the natural process of scour. I must admit I have no definite evidence on this point. No one at the Bay seems to have any notion why the inlet was not filled in years ago. Many hundreds of valuable acres could no . reclaimed, and my suggestion to Bay residents and all who have the welfare of children at. heart is to canvass dor funds, and if necessary pay the Harbour Board to commence reclamation work at once, such reclaimed ground to

be vested in conlm!' cl the Anderson's Bay Ratepayers’. Association for sports and children’s playgrounds, etc. It does appear to me that all sports bodies would co-operate; securing new playing grounds will greatly assist all avenues of sport. Proper reclamation would, 1 am certain, ensure a decent cricket wicket, something Dunedin sadly lacks. I suppose there are at the Bay and in its immediate vicinity some of the finest homes in Dunedin, and it is certainly very difficult to understand why residents *of the Bay—comprising as they do someof. oi;r leading- business and legal brains—should be so apathetic in their own interests, it is a certainty that the Harbour Board will not move until public opinion compels, and the time was never more opportune for all in Anderson’s Bay and all in Dunedin to demand that reclamation of a considerable area of the inlet he immediately undertaken. If it should be that the Harbour Board desires payment for the work, and if Bay residents and sports bodies feel disposed to raise the wherewithal to get the work done, I would be pleased to contribute a modest £lO to tne subscription list. Permit me, in conclusion, to exhort all Bay residents and sports bodies' to leave nothing undone now to have the reclamation immediately commenced. We should impress upon the learried and plodding members of the Harbour Board that a little loquacity in the interests of inlet,reclamation would be more welcome and make better newspaper copy than acrimonious debates on matters more personal than anything else. In the event of a'subscription list being opened you are at libertv to give my name* to the responsible officials, and on request a cheque for £lO would be immediately forthcoming.—l am, etc., ! , Reclaim. May 1.-