"THE KING'S RESERVE."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12393, 1 July 1902, Page 5

"THE KING'S RESERVE."

It will probably be news to a great many of the citizens of Dnnedin that a considerable. slice of what is known ns Cumberland street, on the east side of the Triangle, does not, strictly speaking, belong to the roadline at all, Such.portion of what- is now called Cumberland street alongside the railway station as lies east of a line produced from tlu l junction of that street with Rattray street to its junction with High street is railway reserve. The City Council is now desirous of having this latter piece of land, to which public uso lias, it may fairly be claimed, given it a title, conveyed absolutely to it, From what was! said at the discussion which took place 011 Tuesday last nt n meetiiig of the City Council and two of the city membors oil the subject it is' not clear i whether ikre is any intention to ask theGovernment for the portion of the railway property' on which the useless foundations of a building that is not to ' be erc-cted now stand, but it would not ! be unreasonable to request the Railway Department to transfer that small piece of land to the city, as well as the other of which the public have had the Uso for many years. According to the railway plans, it appears that portion of the land for which the Council is asking is needed for railway purposes. How that can b6 is not intelligible. The Railway Department lias not required the land in the past, and With the large area it now has at its disposal can hardly be in need of any of this- strip to enable it to handle its traffic. Mr Millar has v pointed, out that {he G'ovevnmeiii holds 80 acres cf valuable foreshore in

Dunedin for railway purposes. It would bo erroneous to suppose tlmt Councillor Jluir was speaking by the book when lio stated that the area of land held by tho Government for railway purposes in Piinedin is not only greater than is held in any other city in the colony—though this n indisputably true—but also, ■greater than is utilised for railway purpose? in any city in tlie Australian Commonwealth or in any city in the Mother Country. Nevertheless it is incredible that tho small elbow, formed by. tho portion tho municipal authorities derive to secure fev tho city and comprising 'n nil loss than an acre nnd £-tiU!v,'fW| cannot be quite conveniently spared by the railway authorities. And •if this portion of reserve is not actually rmiuirod by the Department for the handling of its traffic—and we brieve it is not—the City Council may j ■ unhesitatingly nslt that it should be transferred to it for the benefit of the people of Dunwlin, who linvo agreed to submit to n, serious sacrifice in the dosing of Stuart street in order to enable the Government to carry out its project for tho long-deferred ercction of the new railway station. If the land in question is granted to tho Corporation the Council is prepared, tho llnyor showed, to put it to a very excellent purpose. It would he called the King's Reserve, in commemoration of the reign of the Sovereign upon whose behalf the prayers of million? of people are to-day ascending, and, according < the proposed arrangement, a grand wnr.J and hand rotunda'would be erected upon it. Provision would thus be made whereby the reception of distinguished visitors to tile city could be more satisfactorily carried out than has hitherto been possible; and the design of the Council I includes, also, thp arrangement of opener concerts to be supplied by brass bands which would be invited to play in the rotunua on various evenings in the week for the entertainment of the citizens. By the adoption of this latter proposal the congestion of somo of the main streets of tho city, especially on I Saturday nights, would, it is suggested, ho relieved, The prospect of the interruption of dolieato musical passages by the weird blast of locomotives of the recently-imported American typo may not bo wholly blissful from the point of view of the practical bondsman, hut, even if that feature of tho City Council's ; scheme had to be abandoned, tho desirability of securing for Dunedin, if possible, the land in question, and eo i permanently obtaining the use of a conj siderotic opefl space which may be utilised for public gatherings and for voluuteer parades is so great that it is to bo hoped that success will attend the representations which the Corporation ; and the city members intend to make to the Government 011 tho subject,