ISLAND BAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8296, 6 December 1912, Page 1

ISLAND BAY

IMPROVEMENT SCHEME RESIDENTS WANT ESPLANADE COMPLETED. If the Island Bay Municipal Electors’ Association can induce 1 the ; City ■ Council to fall in with its views, considerable improvements .will very soon be made along the waterfront of that suburb. The association has worked out a scheme of improvements which was laid before the reserves committee of the City Council yesterday afternoon. The association's principal proposal is one for the improvement of the beach. It is suggested that the council should. widen and complete the es r plahade from the men’s dressing shed to the point! just beyond the ladies’ dressing shed. A small area oetween the two points', at the end oi Brighton street, should be reclaimed to form a triangular plot for a plantation. Footpaths should be formed and asphalted, trees should be.planted and moro seats should be provided. The esplanade could bo carried later right round to the west point. Suitable trees should bo planted, on , both sides of Reef street from the tram terminus to the beach. Shrubs should also bo planted on the small plot of spare land near the fire brigade station and at' the zigzag on the north end of Clyde street. In supporting the scheme, Mr Odlin said' that the beach improvement was the chief item, but the association, believed the work could be done at a comparatively small cost. The'' other items had really been left over from last Labor Day, and the association, asked that arrangements be made well in advance ‘to enable them to be attended to on or about next Arbor Day with the assistance of working bees, which would .bo organised. They felt it was time that the,beach should be improved. The esplanade scheme was proposed many years ago, but was not proceeded with. Now, however, Wellington had grown sufficiently to warrant a recommencement of operations. The instalment for which they now asked was a modest one.

Mr W. Coy said that the people at the Bay felt that their district'had not .been fairly dealt with in the past It had never had a great deal, of money spent upon it. ' The chairman of the committee, Councillor Frost, said it would bo their duty to meet the residents on the spot and hear further explanations of the proposals. The idea that Island Bay had not been fairly treated was quite wrong. It had benefited by a very large expenditure of public money, probably the biggest expenditure on any part of the old Melrose ward. A great deal, for instance, had . been spent on the culvert, which was now out of sight and. perhaps, also out of mind. This, however, was net to say that the improvement scheme would not be considered. The committee would be quite willing to look into it and would refer it to the council’s .officers for report and estimate of the probable cost.