THE BOATSHED SITES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 771, 10 December 1886, Page 19

THE BOATSHED SITES.

OT THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —Boating men are much concerned at the amendments proposed by the Harbor Board to the City Council’s proposals regarding a site for boatsheds. If placed as the former body wish; very great difficulty would be experienced in getting in *'and out from the sheds in any but perfectly calm weather, and constant breakages to costly racing boats, oars, &c., would occur. The Clubs are not, I think, at all unreasonable in asking for the site they do, as it is so situated as not to (interfere with the shipping in any way, especially as some consideration is due to one of them at least for the great expense it has already been put to during the past two years owing to reclamation works. I refer to the Star Club, who, quite recognising the necessity for their removal, cheerfully pulled down their old shed and went into temporary quarters while their present building was being erected. Permission was given them to reclaim a site and build thereon, and though the Council in office at the time did not bind themselves not to claim the land for reclamation purposes within any specified period, still it was not expected that there would be any necessity for the Club to shift for four or five years at any rate. That the Council were generally of opinion that this would be the case is shown by the fact that they required that a substantial and sightly building should be erected, the plans of which should be submitted to their architect for approval. The present boathouse is the a costly structure, and a credit to the city. No doubt the Council in making their present proposals have had these circumstances under their consideration, and they will, I hope, insist upon their being agreed to.—l am, &c., A Boating Man. Wellington, 29th November.

TO THE THE EDITOR OF NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —Your valuable and suggestive article of last week deals with a subject of vast importance, and demands comment. You say, “ We of this city are too much addicted to laying undue stress upon our amusements.” I venture that this statement contains a great "truth and a great untruth. Let us distinguish. The confessed social evil of our age is the excessive strain of overwork on all classes of the community. This is what is exhausting the nervous energy of the race, is running it down, and must, if not checked, run it out. It is not undue addiction to amusement to spend money on boatsheds, ’ baths, and gymnasiums, so that our youth may be trained in health and vigor, or to have plenty of holidays in which our weary workers may get rest and change, and may make use of these means provided for recruiting their powers. But we are unduly addicted to amusements I—such 1 —such as horseracing—which offer fierce excitement instead of healthful rest, which strengthen neither nerve nor muscle, but are widespread sources of demoralisation. It would be well if the one class of amusements could be discouraged, the other promoted. No doubt our harbor is of vast importance to U 3 ; no one denies that ; but of more importance is the quality of our citizens. If men reproach us for undue addiction to amusements they are unjust, unless they, discriminate ; but they are just, when they reproach us with subordinating all the higher considerations of life to mere money-making. What shall we answer when some Fronde of the future writes “ A capital instance of the short-sighted materialism of the New Zealand colonials occurred in 1886, when the authorities of Wellington sacrificed the rowing clubs, the principal organisations for 'promoting the health and vigour of their youth, to 250 feet of frharf berthage ! ” But I believe better things of our Harbor Board, and trust they will not press their, opposition to the just claims of the rowing clubs. It can never be enough impressed on our thoughtful citizens, and for such only I write, that the conditions of our lives tend to enfeeble the race ; that a 3 a rule the children in this place are weaker and more delicate than their fathers ; that the tendency to race decay can only be resisted in two ways : one, which this is not the place to discuss ; the other, that of not only providing but insisting on systematic gymnastic training and the hearty encouragement of the various manly sports. All of us who look a little ahead and do not in social matters live only from hand to mouth, should realise the importance—nay, the absolute necessity, if we wish to save our race —of paying far more attention than has hitherto been given to this subject. I cannot urge forcibly enough that the wealth of a city is not its banks, shops, or mansions, its schools, libraries or churches, not even its harbor, but its men and women ; on the other hand—

“ 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, When wealth accumulates and men decay.’’ I am, &c., November 30. F. B. H.

[ln what our correspondent calls “ a great truth,” he correctly interprets our

meaning. What he calls “ a great untru'th ” cannot fairly be deduced from our article.-—Ed., N.Z.M.]

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL.

Sir, —As there now appears to be some feeling-manifested toward the boating interests of this city, I might be permitted to express in a few words an opinion on the above subject. It appears to me that the boating men are alone to blame for the manner in which the sites for their new sheds are being shunted about from one spot to another withont any real or justifiable capse, save perhaps the private interests of certain “ leading lights ” of this the Empire City, who pretend and to all appearances have the interests of their country at heart, but who in reality—as is too often the case, I am sorry to say—are only plotting and scheming with the sole object in view of benefiting themselves, and them alone. The boating men are greatly to blame for allowing themselves to be duped in this manner, and I consider it is due in a very large extent to the apparent apathy they have displayed; perhaps not the boating man only, hut the public of Wellington generally, to whom, if they would only foresee some little distance into the dim vista of the far-off future, everlasting benefits would be accrued by giving this question their united and hearty support. It is indeed hard that the members of the Star Club should be put to the enormous expense of shifting their boathouse to the southern side of the mole to mingle with all the stenches and dirt that abound in that locality, when, I hear on ' good authority, that a site not one hundred feet from the present one could, without any detrimental effects to the shipping interests of the port, be given them ; especially, too, after going to all the expense of building such a fine and costly structure, perhaps, of its kind, the finest building in the Southern Hemisphere. It is undoubtedly the business of the public of Wellington to see that this-injustica is not carried out, and I trust a few influential citizens will take the matter in hand, and-call a general meeting of the public to f consider the matter, and encourage the' l present rowing men in every possible way, and thus we may look forward in the future to having a sound and hardy race of men to'manage our affairs. —I am, &c., Old Salt. sE