A DISMANTLED PORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13730, 22 April 1908, Page 8

A DISMANTLED PORT.

PARS'ELL'S NEW ATTRACTION. i Is the mid eighties—lßß6. to be accurate— | the "Russian scare" that during that period seemed to have visited all the British depenI dencies in turn passed through New Zealand, I and while under its stress the Government of i the day built a fort at Point Resolution as an j additional safeguard of the harbour against a. i possible invasion by the Russian bear. He j didn't come, however, but the fori remained | till a couple of years ago. when it. wan dis- ! mantled. The reason for this was that naval I experts had pronounced the fort valueless j from a strategical point of view, because, if I an invading fleet were permitted to get as. far j up the harbour as that, no fort would be liable to stop it, and the city would be I doomed. j Since that lime the dismantled fort has I been deserted and closed, 'he grim bastion j from which the black' muzzles of the great ! guns protruded menacingly, is now overgrown ; with grass, as though nature resented man's j warlike intrusion on her peaceful domain, and hastened to wipe out every trace. Lichen is spreading (iter the gray stone, ramparts, fragrant red said while clover cover the raised I plat mi-:, and delicate fern fronds peep out of the loop holes. And from the lop of this deserted battlement, what a scene of beauty unfolds itself! A shimmering expanse ol blue ocean stretching to a sky line broken on either bide by undulating coast and liokl headland. The eastern entrance to the harbour is faintly outlined against the horizon: straight across, the North Head and Rangitoto stand like sentinels watching the city: Brown's Island rises from the sea in the north-east: _ Waiheke and Orakei guard the east. Turning; to the west, the eye falls on the water front of the city, and the ships of commerce. The plateau on which the fort was built tapers to a wooded point, with cliffs sloping sheerly to the water, lOQft beneath. This war-like relic of the past will for the future be the haunt of the harmless picnicker, as the spot i? to be turned into a pleasuring ground for sightseers, ft has been handed over to the Parried! Borough Council bv the Government for that purpose at a nominal rental, on eondit.'on that the Council beautifies it and-keeps it in order. Nature has already done the beautification from her point ■ «>f view, and it is to be hoped that the quiet i loveliness of the scene will lie. altered an little as possible, consistent with its proper upkeep. This new beauty spot may be reached in aquarter of an hour from Auckland.