THE OCEAN BEACH PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13516, 13 February 1906, Page 6

THE OCEAN BEACH PUBLIC DOMAIN.

1 TO THE EDITOR. Sin,—After visiting the suburbs of your .fair city my attention bad boon called to the great progress made in- fixing the sands in front of Onslow House with yellow lupin, marram grass, ete. With the exception of a few straggling shrubs and withered grass, I failed to see any improvement whatever beyond what existed 22 years ago. The whole aspect is both naked and bare, and the surrounding buildings are open to all the winds. What is to prevent an esplanade being formed twist St. Clair and Onslow House, which forms tlio tn.m terminus at present, ■having shelter fences erected and a plantation boundary to ward off the piorcin? south-west winds raised sufficiently high to take immediate effect. Ccukl not Councillor Lawrence be brought to the ground the first windy day to point out. to Mr Hancock, the Domain Board chairman, how such work could be accomplished and financed, so that Lhft succeeding race will benefit. An eight-strand barb wire fence extending towards the Peninsula district appears to ,ma to be the only and most noticeable feature in the landscape. Before the city is visited by strangers from a distance- it is to bo hoped the attention of the authorities will be directed to this foul or ugly spot, and help to conceal in every possible manper the galvanised iron effect that arrests the attention of a stranger on being landed amid a cloud of dust, as the writer has been. The frontage area, of the public domain which extends from Forbury road to Lawyer's Head, a. distance of, say, two miles in length, could bo planted with poplars, willows, and various nines following tho contour of the ground, which would; ho p. work of some importance and a permanent benefit to the residents and st.rangers in the locality. All tho labour at present spent, (in that locality) is simply a waste of both time and means.—l am, etc., j. m.