The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1930. OCEAN BEACH IMPROVEMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 20422, 1 March 1930, Page 14

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1930. OCEAN BEACH IMPROVEMENT.

A promenade from St. Clair to St. Kilda, or from St. Clair to Lawyer’s Head, along tbe magnificent stretch of the Ocean Beach is an alluring scheme, and a great many people will be pleased that it has been coming once more into discussion. A correspondent has suggested a promenade between the two suburbs to accommodate motor traffic as well as pedestrians, the scheme to take in the whole of the sandhills, to be laid out as a park, with tennis and croquet courts, tea gardens and playing areas, the whole to be enclosed and toll gates erected. This may bo as over-ambitious, for the present, in regard to the gardens and playing grounds as Mr C. H. Napier’s proposal put forward last year was in another direction. Mr Napier produced an enticing plan for a combined shelter and promenade to bridge the gap in the sandhills which makes the entrance to the beach at St. Kilda. This, ho proposed, should be built in the form of a ship’s deck promenade, with provision for tea rooms and whatever else of that kind was required. Visitors to St. Kilda would have a clear space to walk up and down or sit, with a full view of tho 'ach and sea. without being bothered with sand if a wind blew up and secure from rain. A disadvantage of tho beach at present, at this end, is that there is no provision for shelter; Mr Napier’s plan provided for his promenade being extended in both directions by means of a raised jetty, built Sft above the top of tho sandhills, "to allow of their growing, to servo as a motor way between St. Clair and Lawyer’s Head. But the promenade and shelter alone would cost perhaps £15,000, and when ■the plan was.considered by the Tramway Committee it reported that it could take no responsibility for such an expenditure on a site that was not. under its jurisdiction—the beach being controlled by the Domain Board —and tho City Council concurred in that decision. Some ten years ago a beginning was made with an extension of tho St. Clair esplanade towards St Kilda without tho device of a raised promenade. The sea broke through and washed tho track away. The piles at St. Clair wore then erected to prevent future inroads of the sea, and as no alarm has been caused since on that score the presumption is that they have not been ineffectual, though immunity may have been duo merely to the fact tliat conditions which caused the first trouble—a continuance of violent southerly winds for four successive days—have not been repeated. It is now reported that the, St Clair Improvement Society has in mind a continuance of its esplanade towards St. Kilda out of the funds to he provided by its forthcoming carnival, and that tho corresponding St. Kilda Society may be ready to join with it in that intention. The St. Kilda body, wo understand, lias expenses still to meet in connection with its last improvements, but it the two associations could combine for the purpose proposed and accumulate a fund by which, when their means sufficed, it could bo put in hand, that appears to us •to promise the best means of dealing with the matter. The City Council has made it plain that it will do nothing For the beach which comes under another authority's jurisdiction- -that authority being itself without any funds—and tho present is not a time for raising a Joan for such a scheme. If a loan proposal wore submitted to the ratepayers, indeed, many of them might consider the motor way as the least attractive part of proposals for improvement of the Ocean Beach. Much has been done for motorists in the last ten years, and advantages might bo urged for keeping one joyous pleasure resort, in close proximity to the city, as a sanctuary for pedestrians and their children..