BUILDINGS ON THE DOMAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15659, 13 July 1914, Page 4

BUILDINGS ON THE DOMAIN.

Sir,—One ran understand a City Council forgetting (lie sacred nature of its trust to keep niir open spaces inviolate, but one |rs::r.:>t understand the intelligent section |of the public allowing it. Where is this filching going to purl ? .Already the Auckland bowling, croquet, or tennis clubs (one of the three) has squatted on a slice down Jin Stanley Street, we have more tennis courts at the Parnell end, a kiosk, a bandj stand or two, a " fairy fountain," and now they arc going to add to the collection a structure, made of the flimsiest material for a " horticultural hall," and several hundred square yards of corrugated iron for a cadet hall, which is to be re-erected on the most public frontage of the Domain. Each and every one of the above objects is admirable and praiseworthy in itself, but they should not find a place at the expense of our open spaces. The absurdity of purchasing parks and open spaces in one part of the city, and littering other open spaces with unsightly buildings is so obvious that even the City Council must see it. The cadet movement is the finest that has come along for half-a-contury, but it does not at all folio.* that this fact entitles us to put up a hall on a spot that .should be preserved for all time as an open space. Those who excuse the flagrant breach of a duty they owe the people by saying that the" cadet movement is to save the future generation confuse the two issues in a 1 manner that makes it useless to argue. It is at present useless to dwell on the utter unsuitability of the site chosen for. the cadet hall. The worthiness of the movement seems to have quite obfuscated moro important sides of the question, and the only thing one can hope for is that by the time the Empowering Bill gets down to Wellington tho citizens will have realised where this insidious whitling awav of our magnificent domain must eventually lead. Open Space,