HOBSON BAY RECLAMATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 8

HOBSON BAY RECLAMATION.

RECREATION GROUND WANTED. The Auckland Harbour Board met yesterday. The Hon. E. Mitchelson presided, and there were also present: Messrs. H. Bradney, H. Heather, A. Keyes, A. J. Entrican, J. B. Macfarlane, W. E. Hutchison, John Kneen, and G. W. Basley, and Captain McKenzie. Mr. J. S. Briggs, Mayor of Parnell, headed a deputation representing the Parnell, Newmarket, and Remuera districts to ask the Board to vest 20 acres of Hobson Bay in the local authorities interested for the purpose of a recreation ground. Mr. Briggs said there were five acres adjoining vested in the Parnell Borough Council for a recreation ground, and the two areas together would make a good breathing space. Mr. Johns said that in time the district abutting on the bay would bo very congested, and a recreation ground there would be a necessity. Mr. Mitchekon: Do you want it granted as it is? Mr. Johns said he did not think the local bodies wanted the Board to do anything but place the land at their disposal. The Chairman said he knew this reserve well. As a member of the then Government he had vested the reserve in the Parnell Borough Council on the understanding that it should be immediately improved and made into a recreation ground. That had not been done, but the area had been let. The Board sympathised in the desire for open-air spaces, but it had to remember that other requests of this kind might .be made. He moved that the request of the deputation be referred to the committee, when it would receive very careful consideration. The motion wai carried.