PARKS IN SYDNEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19417, 27 August 1926, Page 14

PARKS IN SYDNEY.

UNENVIABLE DISTINCTION. " MERE FIG-TREE PLANTATIONS." [from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY, Aug. 19. A movement aiming at the more effective control of Sydney's parks, aad at a more adequate return for the yearly expenditure of upwards of £35,000 which is allocated by the City Council for their maintenance and improvement, is generally supported, especially among those in a position to compare the city parks and gardens with those in other cities. The comment in the press, in reference to the question, thr,t the metropolis of Sydney has the unenviable distinction of "breathing spaces" which can only be described as third-rate, eVen on a comparison of Australian standards, is not without justification. Even if it may be regarded as profanity; as base irreverence, for a Sydneysider to say so, the fact remains that Sydney's parks, with one or two exceptions, lack the well-ordered' beauty and landscape effects of the open spaces of Melbourne, for example, not to mention those of the New Zealand titips. Apart from the Botanic Gardens, Hyde Park, which is now largely in the possession of the Railway Commissioner for the purposes of the underground railway and, in a lesser degree, Centennial Park, Sydney's parks, as has been pointed out, could in very many cases be mistaken for mere %-tree plantations, devoid as they are o£ flowers and landsc&pe effects.