A LAKE NEAR ANZAC PARK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 29 November 1927, Page 7

A LAKE NEAR ANZAC PARK

(To the Editor}

Sir. May I pninl out through your ooiuums a scheme lor tin: carrying ont of which ilio present time appears particularly opportune. The mudflats of (he Estuary, beautiful as they are in the distance—are a. great disfigurement I o the entran.ee of Urn City from the Pori road. The Oily Council jg reclaiming land and hurning rubbish opposite the Auckland Point school, and jutting out a tongue of land towards llie school point. Why not make a barrage from point lo point by utilising (he material at present being railed from the Rocks Road and which is now going to King's Acre. By so doing a beautiful lake some 12 acres in extent could he formed right ill Ihe cut ranee of Iho (lily, which by the, 'introduction of suitable sluice gales of the. “stonoy” type could he filled by the sea at spring tides whenever so desired. J do not doubt it is a good thing to lill in the swamp land at the King's Acre, blit it hardly appears necessary lo lill it so deeply as is being done, and the Rocks road material, which will eventually make good soil, could he belter used for topping off Ihe present rubbish heap, and making Ihe hank 1 am suggesting connecting (lie two points which arc little more than a hundred yards apart as near as 1 can guess.

Only (hose, who like myself have lived in beautiful parts of Italy and Switzerland, will understand how prone people of British stock are to make nature hideous instead of adding to its beauty. Personally I abhor straight roads, -cities.laid out like a chess board, and bridges and houses only built from a utilitarian point of view. Give me first and foremost something to hand down to posterity that is “a. joy for ever,” and the rest will follow. A nation that makes efficiency and utilitarianism its God will be hated, and eventually go under as it deserves. There is a chance of making a beautiful lake now near the Anzac Park gardens, which' would, in my opinion, beautify Nelson more than anything so far attempted, and right at its main entrance. —I am. etc..

H. G. FOSTER-BARHAM Nelson, 28th Nov.