CRANLEY PARK—A RECREATION GROUND—THE ANTIDOTE FOR TYPHOID AT THORNDON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 913, 30 August 1889, Page 15

CRANLEY PARK—A RECREATION GROUND—THE ANTIDOTE FOR TYPHOID AT THORNDON.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —in order that our joy and thankfulness may be manifested, and to commemorate the convalescence of Lord Cranley, and our sympathy with his Excellency the Earl of and Lady Onslow, there is one thing I think w'e should do, viz., set about making the Thorndon recreation ground at once. As the cemetery is now to be closed, no difficulty? stands in the way. The work could be done in nine months. I would therefore suggest that the ground should be called Cranley? Park, and that his Excellency should be asked to open the ground in the name of Lord Cranley. The scheme aims at the improvement of the health of the people, high and low, and seeks to secure for them a large open space by reclaiming the waste gully, situated off Sydney-street, in the Botanical Gardens, where a duel was fought in the early? days of the Colony, and we hope to witness many a hard-fought game of cricket. It is admirably situated for a recreation ground, where the overworked among our population may enjoy . opportunities of using their limbs,and muscles in healthful and innocent exercise. The object is one

weil worthy the support of all good citizens. The Saturday afternoons, so precious for, health and happiness, would be far more fruitful of results were sucli recreation grounds more common. Young men need exercise and games as much as children, especially clerks, mechanics, and those who are engaged during the day in sedentary employments under the depressing influences of close air and hot rooms. The expei’iment of public recreation grounds wherever it has been tried has diffused a higher standard of duty among the people, and eventually fostered habits of thrift and economy. Philanthropy? in this direction is real, and will alleviate the lot of our working classes at this end of the city?, and greatly increase their means of enjoying life and making the most of it. At present we haveonly the Basin Reserve, of which only about six acres are really available for games—wholly inadequate for a city progressing like Wellington, with its 30,000 inhabitants. With Cranley Park and the Botanic Gardens the public will enjoy a large and beautiful place of public resort, unequalled in any town in New Zealand. As a monument of our joy and sympathy with his Excellency the Governor, Cranley Park will last for ever.—lam, &c., A Thorndon Ratepayer.