ST. MARY'S BOAT HARBOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23059, 9 June 1938, Page 12

ST. MARY'S BOAT HARBOUR

Now that the boat harbour in St. Mary's Bay is almost completed, the Harbour Board is doing well to call the clubs into conference with a view to working out a balanced scheme for buildings on the breakwater. This care for the waterfront amenities is as commendable as it is important. Enough thought for preserving the beauties of the Waitemata was not expended in the past and some of the results have not been happy. Allowance must be made for the development of the economic needs of a great distributing centre and for the rude hands of lusty youth. Buj; the time has surely arrived when Auckland can afford to admit higher motives than the utilitarian and endeavour to work in more with Nature rather than affront her. The treatment of St. Mary's breakwater, a marine frontage of the first prominence, offers a test case and an opportunity to exercise the more mellow outlook of maturer years. An attempt should be made to plan any buildings so that they will fit into seascape and landscape instead of marring both with a row of nondescript sheds. Ways and means must, of course, prove a problem for the clubs. Their members are mostly working boys and men who are naturally inclined to put all they can spare into their boats. Even so, if the available means are used wisely according to a balanced scheme, an acceptable result should be achieved. The Tamaki Yacht Club's quarters offer an example of how needs can be met without outraging a peerless site. Wellington's small boat harbour, built to a single plan, is modest but presentable. It may be that the community, jealous to preserve its marine beauties, will be found willing to assist the clubs in raising a good front at St. Mary's, because here is a community and an aesthetic interest of permanent concern.