PROPOSED ARTIFICIAL LAKE IN HAGLEY PARK.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11050, 31 August 1896, Page 3

PROPOSED ARTIFICIAL LAKE IN HAGLEY PARK.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Will you kindly allow me space in your valuable paper for the publication of a few words on the above subject. It is proposed to go into the question of a lake in Hagley Park, and yet we see our river getting worse and worse every year. Some parts of the Avon, I admit, are in very good order, but others are a mass of weeds, or only a few inches of water covering beautiful, solid mud-banks. Tho dredge at work does a lot of good, but cannot keen pace with the weeds, Ac, that form the banks in several parts of tho river. One has only to take a, walk along the river roads to see the filth being more and more exposed to the sun every day. And what does the dredge do after all P Simply churns up the filth and weeds together, which settle elsewhere, and form mudbanks. The weeds and mud should he removed from the river, not dragged into it, as is daily being done by the men at work with the dredge. The men who work from the banks of the river drag the weeds out, but they are only dragged to the water’s edge, and gradually find their way into the river again. It is a fact that the river is becoming narrower every year, and it is only a question of time before the river will he practically a drain. With the river in its present very bad order I consider that it is not the time to go to expense over a lake in the park. If the river cannot bo kept in proper order, how will a lake be kept as well ? The river, considering the whole drainage of Christchurch is into it, is a necessity, and, for the health of the public, should be kept in proper order. Tho proposed Take is not necessary, and should not he considered while we cannot keep the river in the order that it should be kept.—l am, Ac, A RESIDENT SINCE 1870.