EVANS BAY

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12075, 28 February 1925, Page 4

EVANS BAY

While J;ho roading policy of the City Council is earning plaudits, and the tramway management is deserving encomiums, and the future of the'trackless vehicle is growing fast into a hard problem, and industrial claims are rising into prominence, the residents of Evans Bay are full of apprehension. They have beautiful facilities for bathing and recreation. They are afraid that the march of progress will mop up both, covering their valued places with solid reclamation and - overlaying the value of their properties with the smoke of prosaic industry. The council. avers that There will be no smoke; only the cleanliness of electricallydriven industry. There is no statute to prevent the use of coal, but if the electricity is the cheaper power, the point need not be raised. The objection of the Evans Bay folk is, however, not to industry, but to too much industry: to the, sacrifice of their bathing and their recreation to the industrial Moloch. Now, the bathing in this hay ia the best on that side of the great Wellington harbour, and the recreation facilities, moderate as they are, are the objects of only a moderate demand for increase. The demands of the hay folk are not frivolous, neither are they extravagant. But they concern vital issues. They rely on the principle that business must not compel the sacrifice of everything grapious, and pleasant, and truly necessary in life. We can well believe that the council is not capable of sacrificing everything to a gross materialism, destructive of body and soul alike. Councillors, like other people, can value sunlight and space amd the pleasant recreations that prolong life by making it enjoyable. The trouble, however, is that the council is not supreme, for the Harbour' Board owns the foreshore. The hoard’s'plans are extensive. But the hoard surely is incapable of sacrificing everything to gross materialism. Therefore there ought to be no difficulty in meeting the very reasonable and modest demands of the Evans Bay'people.