OPEN SPACES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15662, 16 July 1914, Page 11

OPEN SPACES.

. Sir,— unnaturally, some little public interest is being taken in the proposal to .** apart a portion of the Outer Domain lor the purpose of providing a suitable for our fine body of senior Wis. of whom there are, I believe, some W interested in this matter. So far there "M been no objection raised to the proton of such a building. The objection is *? the proposed site, and it is contended ™at the Outer Domain should not be used fM that purpose. I presume those by T'noso foresight we have the Domain landed that it should be used by the . E«ople of Auckland in providing breathing m playing spaces, in such a way as to K?'* their health and happir-;ss, not 'w.be,.merely a wilderness of trees and 8 t1 53: paddocks, neither of use nor orna?e»t- If this is admitted, then it can ISR be denied that in providing footticket, tennis, and other playgrounds j!P*tt-to the. whole of the people, the City , ptocil is devoting the ground to the uses M >hich.it was set apart. So long as ,we wter Domain was let as a pasture for : ™ e F a * hundred horses no one took the 'iMi''Vr: ■- * - .'■' '■■■ ■■>■/•

trouble to protest, But now that thero are proposals made, which have as their object the use of the Domain by men, women and children in the way moat likely to be appreciated by them, we .find that a few are raising a protest. To have set apart an acre of the open land for use by the senior cadets would perhaps not have been objected to by many of those who now oppose the erection of a building for the same purpose, covering about the same area. is this to be taken into consideration, that in the one case it woti'Jd be ~ altogether useless to the cadets, while in the other it promises to be eminently suitable for their purposes, and may for about a month every year, if wanted, bo used for other public purposes. In any caso, neither proposal, that for a cadet hall, nor for a hall for the horticulturists, intends a permanent appropriation of the land occupied by the buildings. Should it be found that a bolter use can bo mad'.i of the ground set apart for these buildings, they aro entirely at the disposal of the council, and can be removed at short notice. Personally I think that in its action the City Council is doing something which has the sympathy and approval of at least nine-tenths of the people. About one-half of the homes of the city and suburbs must be represented in the large number of cadets directly interested in the matter. Surely they deserve, if only for their self-denial and public spiritodness, that something should be done by the citizens generally to show appreciation. Used Open Spaces.