Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9478, 24 September 1889, Page 4

There are four large Domains in the cities of New Zealand, and their value, present and future, cannot be overestimated. Our Domain in Auckland contains 196 acres, has a revenue of £400 a-year derived from rents, and is under the control of the City Council, acting as a Domain Board. The charm of the Auckland Domain lies in its rural character— delicious bit of lovely country in the midst of a city, offering at the same time ample facility for a Botanic Garden, and for sports of every kind for the people. The Domain of Dunedin in also very beautiful, and contains magnificent clumps of the old natural forest and bush, but is narrow, as its name of "Town Belt" implies. As the city grows the Dunedin Town Belt may become a Boulevard ; running

I round its land side. Dunedin being hilly, the Town Belt follows its contour and is of the same character. In extent i it is only 41 acres. The revenue from rents for its support is £450, and the government is vested in the City Council, as a Domain Board. The [. Christchurch Domain—usually called " Hagley Park " —is very different in character, being nearly a dead level, and depending for its beauty on artificial planting and great care. The river s Avon runs through the Park, which adjoins the oit.y, and adds much to its attractions. Hag-ley Park covers 430 acres, including the Hospital and the College with their grounds, which form part of it. The annual rents upon which the park depends amount to £462. The Board differs from those we have already mentioned, consisting of certain gentlemen nominated by the Government, under a special Act. The Wellington Domain differs from the rest, being a mass of high, rounded, grass-covered bills, with very beautiful bits of natural bush in the gullies, splendid views from the hill-tops, and forming altogether one of the most charming places for pedestrian exercise • that could be imagined. A few gullies of trifling extent are cultivated, but so rare is a bit of level ground in the hills immediately round Wellington that any flat space, however small, generally has its distinctive name, becomes " Baker's or Mitchell's flat," or some other, indicating probably the name of its original discoverer. The Wellington Domain adjoins the city, lias been abundantly planted on the hillsides with European trees, has charming paths meandering in all directions, and, like that of Auckland, will depend -c: \\rut*} character »-* obi?? >-<; a return cc tilt of the. crov,city. The cei; •• of tin vYiliiigtou Domain is 9:, acres, i:;;> revenue from rents £180, and the governing authority vested in a Board created by special Act and nominated by the Governor, like that of Christchurch. There is always much latent discontent with the dry and conceited officialism characteristic of the ordinary nominated Board. This feeling appears particularly to prevail in Wellington, where the irrepressible Sir James Hector, assisted by a few of the Wellington members of the old regime, has long ruled. It has recently found vent in an application from the City Council to the Government, urging that the Domain should, as in Auckland and Dunedin, be handed over to it for administration. The correspondence connected with this application has just been published. It opens with a letter from the Colonial Secretary to the Domain Board on the Ist of April last, in which he informs them of the application made bv the City Council, and asks for their views thereon. Sir James Hector replies, asking in return for the reasons given by the City Council for making their application. The reasons accordingly given are—(l) that the City Council pays all the rents on which the Domain Board depends ; (2) that the garden was falling into decay from neglect of the works necessary to bring it into proper order ; and (Ji) that the City Council would be prepared to spend a larger sum in keeping the garden and the Domain in good condition. The dignity of the Board was hurt at this off-hand mode of dealing with an august official body, and the members record an emphatic dissent from the reasons given by the City Council. They declare that the reasons are "in some respects incorrect," and do not afford "sufficient grounds for making the proposed transfer." They direct their manager to reply to this effect, and at the same time "'to narrate the position that the Board occupies in relation to the reserves under its control." The narrative is interesting. It shows the various stages by which the Domain passed from a mere public reserve to its present state. It begins in. 1866, soon after the establishment of the seat of Government in Wellington. The Governor's powers were delegated to the Director of Geological Survey (Sir James Hector), but in 1863 five "Botanic Gar den Board" was formed by Order-in-Council, and the reserve placed by Ac t i under its control. The air-;- was ex.- I tended to its present acreage by auectx--sive Acts of Assembly. The Town Belt, of which a part is included in .the Domain, contains the Hospital and the Lunatic Asylum built upon it. The whole of the rest of the Domain is leased for grazing purposes, or to the City Council in connection with the Hospital and Asylum. t During the last 20 years the Board lias expended £7627 on the land, of which £3421 was from Parliamentary grants only discontinued about two years ago. The whole of this sum has been spent in fencing of the simplest kind, in planting the hillsides, in forming excellent paths, and in the maintenance of nurseries, from which the whole of the public gardens and public places in Wellington have been supplied with the trees that now adorn them. Very many choice plants and trees have also been supplied. to other cities, and there can be no question that the Board has done very well. Still, their rule is unpopular, and the Domain has come to be regarded as belonging to the

Government rather than to "the people. It is to be hoped that the City Council of Wellington, with the larger funds at their command, will not attempt to turn into a park that which nature has designed for a resort whose chief charm must always be its, wild and rural character. Good paths, simple fencing, and abundant tree and shrub planting on the hill sides, are all that is necessary to make the Wellington Domain a perpetual source of health and pleasure to the citizens and to the strangers within their gates. Our own Auckland Domain is in some respects similar in character. Much of it can never be so beautiful as when left in its natural condition, or ever be made more attractive by art, however Large the sums that may be spent in the attempt. The money will be worse than wasted. A prim and costly garden, and the sun glaring on broad unsheltered carriage drives, must be but a poor compensation for the destruction of the rural character which will make it ever more attractive as time goes on. In these Domains Auckland and Wellington have a priceless possession that will minister to the mental as well as physical health of . the crowded city populations that must one day use them. To attempt making either of them mere show places, or to deprive them in any way of their rural characteristics, will be unpardonable vandalism. The tendency in that direction has developed among ourselves lately to an alarming degree, j Whatever the faults of the present l purely official administration in Wellington, it offers to us in respect to taste and simplicity an example that could not be too closely followed.