LOGAN PARK AREA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19270, 6 September 1924, Page 2

LOGAN PARK AREA.

THE MAIN HIGHWAY PROJECT. EDUCATION BOARD SITE DIFFICULTY. ANOTHER CONFERENCE HELD. SATISFACTORY CONCLUSION REACHED.

Another conference between representatives of the City Council, tho Harbour Board, and tho education Board was bold at tho 'Town Hall yesterday afternoon, the object being to arrive at some definite understanding regarding the future of Logan Park and the location of tho site for the Albany Street School. Those present were the Mayor (Mr H. L. Tapley), Ors Douglas, Hancock, Sincock, and Mr Lowin (town clerk), representing the City Council, Messrs D. Larnach, A. Cable, -J. M’Donald, and C. L. Horn (acting-secre-tary), representing the Harbour Board, and Messrs J. Wallace, J. H. Wilkinson, H. H. S. Todd, L. Sanderson, G. K. Graham, and S. M. Park (secretary), representing the Education Board. The Mayor occupied the chair. In opening the proceedings the Mayor said tho meeting had been called to see if they could expedite a decision in regard to Logan Park and tho main highway, which had been so full of controversy for some time, and in order that the City Council could have something definite before it when it asked the ratepayers for authority to raise the money necessary to construct the highway, pay compensation for the buildings that would have to be removed, and provide for tho drainage of Logan Park. He hoped they would have a roundtable conference with a view to removing all obstructions and difficulties, and ho thought that could be done. He had had several conferences with the chairman of the Harbour Board and the chairman of the Education Board, and every endeavour had been made to come to an amicable arrangement. The difficulties that existed between the Harbour Board and the City Council had been removed, and these two bodies had mutually arranged a term of tenure at Logan Park. The tenure was for 99 years, with the right of renewal for another 99 years. He thought the City Council could accept that, as 200 years was a long time. As the City Council had to spend a very large sum of money it was necessary to look to the future and provide for a tenure that would justify the expense. Tile route of the highway had still to be definitely arranged between the Harbour Board, the Railway Department, and the City Council, but that was a matter of machinery, and a highway that would be suitable to all parties could be provided. The only difficulty now confronting the City Council in going to the ratepayers was the position that existed between the Harbour Board and the Education Board. At the conferences between the three chairmen they had endeavoured to come to. an arrangement on that matter, and he thought it had been fixed. After the discussions Mr Wallace had expressed tho opinion that the Education Board would accept the new site offered to it provided that in the event of the ratepayers refusing to sanction a loan its rights under the agreement with the Harbour Board would not be prejudiced, and that it could take up the original she offered. It seemed to him that there was not a very great deal of difficulty in the way of a settlement. He thought they could get over the difficulty if the Harbour Board could satisfy the Education Board on the point. If the City Council were going to recommend the ratepayers to authorise a loan for carrying out the proposed works it must put a clear-cut issue before them. The council wanted to be able to say that it could get Logan Park intact, and until it could got some definite assurance that the area would be handed over absolutely intact it could not go definitely before tho ratepayers and recommend them to vote tor a loan. He had no doubt that the difficulty could be removed that afternoon, and ho hoped tho conference would result in the City Council being able to pass a resolution that a vote of the ratepayers be taken in. regard to a loan. It was essential that the highway should be built in time for the opening of the Exhibition, and that could not be done unless the matters at issue were settled right away. Their engineer stated that it would take nine or ten months to build the highway, and there were other matters to be attended to before he work could be started. Ho hoped the difficulty between the Harbour Board and the Education Board would be removed bo as to enable the former to hand over tho park intact to the City Council. The conditions affecting the University would remain, and those rights would be preserved under the arrangement made with the Harbour Board. He would like to know if the chairman of the Education Board could give them a lead in regard to getting over the difficulty. It seemed to him that the Education Board would be quite safe. The Harbour Board said that the Education Board would not be prejudiced in any negotiations.

On being invited to speak, Mr Wallace (chairman of the Education Board) raised the question of the press representatives being present. He did not consider that a round-table conference should be reported in the papers.' He certainly would not speak as plainly as he would if the press representatives were not present. Mr Larnach: Why should the position not be put before the public? The Harbour Board is getting very sick of the whole thing. The Mayor said they had reached the stage when the City Council was being blamed for its inactivity, and he thought that the public should know the exact position, but at the same time, if the Education Board felt that this was not a matter for publication in the press he thought it would be unwise to have the discussion in open meeting. What they wanted to do was to have an amicable talk and arrive at a decision in the interests of the citizens.

Mr Wallace said ho did not think he was an obstructionist, but ho felt that if the Mayor had told him that press representatives would be present he would not have agreed to it. He would waive the point, but if he had known that press representatives would be present he would not have attended, nor would he have asked other members of the Education Board to attend. The position of the Education Board was quite plain. It had arranged with the Harbour Board that it would get five acres of freehold and three acres of leasehold on Logan Park. As the result of conversations with certain members bf the Harbour Board, a doubt had arisen in his mind whether the Harbour Board meant to stick to that bargain. He thought ho had fair cause for making that statement, and the discussion at the Harbour Board meeting on the previous day had further increased the uneasiness in "his mind. He did not think the Harbour Board would go back on its bargain, but it might. The Education Board’s site of the question was that for a school it wanted the best site available. The board had picked the best site available, and it did not want to bo shifted off it, but if it got certain conditions which it had asked for it was quite willing to consider the question of shifting to the new site which the Harbour Board had generously offered to it. In some ways the site offered to the Education Board now was very much better than the area on Logan Park, but as a site for a school it was not as good. The now site was bounded on one side by the railway, and there was always a certain amount of disturbance whenever a train went past. Another objection was that it was right in the speed of the wind going down Albany street and also in the swoop of the wind coming up the harbour. One of the things of which the board was afraid there was that a ceWsh. amount of dust from the cement works would bo swept over the school.

The Mayor; No worse than at Logan Park,

Mr Wallace said it would bo much worse because Logan Park did not get the wind. These were very grave drawbacks in tho eyes of tho Education Board. Who was agitating to got tho Education Board ofi Dogan Park? He considered that the sports bodies were responsible. Voices: No.

Mr Wallace said he was at the first conference, and nearly all the speakers were representatives of sports bodies. The board considered that it was entitled to look for the best site it could get for a school, and it did not think it was doing the sports bodies any harm if the school were put on Logan Park. There would bo more sport carried on on the school grciund than on all the rest of the park. The Education Board wanted an assurance that the highway was going through. Ho was not prepared to &ay that tho Education

Board would shift, but he thought there was a very good chance that it would remove from the original site if the highway wont through. The board had gone to an enormous amount of trouble to get that site, and if it went to the authorities in Wellington and stated that a change had been made it would have to go through the same thing again, and he was not prepared to take on the job. He thought he could assure the City Council that if it informed tne ratepayers that it was assured that the Education Board would give a favourable reply to the request for a cnange of site if tire highway went through it would be quite safe. The Mayor said the trouble was that Mr Wallace’s statement was not definite. If Mr Wallace 'could soy that in the event of the loan proposal being carried by the ratepayers and the highway constructed the Education Board would be prepared to accept the new site offered by the Harbour Board that would be sufficient for the council’s purpose. That would probably enable the council to go through with the thing. The success of the poll would be jeopardised unless they got an assurance. Mr Wallace: It looks very lop-sided to the Education Board that the . Harbour Board gives the University 20 acres and hangs up our application for eight acres. Our ground will be used more for sports than the University area. Mr Graham said he was convinced that from first to last there had been an effort to “jockey” the Education Board out of the Logan Park site. First of all objection was made by the sports bodies, and now a pistol was held at their heads over tne main highway. The site offered to the board now was not suitable for a school. When the wind was blowing up the harbour it would be impossible for the children to play on the ground, and there might be noisy factories on the Harbour Board endowments. The site originally offered was an ideal one, and if Dunedin could not do with the rest for the next 50 or 100 years it was going to progress at a rate which he did not expect. The country members of the Education Board were right against the present proposal. They were trying to build up for future generations an ideal training college and school, but for the sake of sport they were going to be done out of it. He thought he was right in stating that if the highway had never been mentioned the board would _ have set its face against giving up the site, but the highway appeared to appeal to the town members on account of the improvement to the city. and they had backed down a little. The’ country members were stronger for education than for the improvement of the part of the town affected. A huge recreation ground was going to be constructed. and why should the Education Board not get its eight acres? There were other parts of the reclaimed ground that could be secured _ for . sport, and in any case it was not wise to put all the recreation grounds at one end of the town. The hew site oould not ho considered in comparison with the original one. The Mayor said the Education Board site cut right into Logan Park, and spoiled the configuration of the whole thing. Mr Graham: It is right in one corner. Mr Wallace said the Education Board had passed certain resolutions to defer consideration until it got more information, and one matter about which they wanted information was the highway. The Mayor: Supposing we give you the highway? Mr Wallace; But you cannot guarantee that any more than we can give a guaranMr Sincopk said it seemed from what Mr Graham had stated that the_ Education Board was determined to stick to the original site. He did not think the City Council could go to the ratepayers without an assurance that the Education' Board was prepared to accept the alternative _ site;. If the Education Board could not give that assurance it seemed to him that the conference was practically so much waste time. Mr Wilkinson said that every member of the Education Board considered that the site originally offered was the most suitable for a school, and so long aa there seemed to bo a possibility of securing that site without undue interference with the rights of the citizens they were prepared to advocate that it should b© retained. While their primary duty was to look after the interests of education they owed a duty to the citizens as a whole, and ;in view of the altered conditions some of them had reviewed the matter and had modified their ideas with the object of coming to some arrangement that would be in the best interests of‘ all concerned. They were very, loth to part with tho site oh Logaqf'Pnrk. They recognised that the Harbour Board was doing its best to meet the wishes of the citizens, otherwise it would not have offered that valuable site to the Education Board. _ There were certain conditions about which the Education Board must he srure before it surrendered the right it had at present He accepted with confidence the report that if the highway were nob carried out the original agreement would be adhered to. Ho thought that if tho highway were farmed and the area to the south of the new site reserved for residential purposes the Education Board would- agree to the proposed change. Or Douglas mentioned that it had been decoded that there would bo no tram lines on the main highway. At this stage it was decided to go into committee.

When the conference resumed in open the Mayor said he was very pleased to say that as a result of that conference he thought they had now got all their difficulties settled.—(Hear, hear.) They would be enabled after the Harbour Board meeting next Monday to give assurance to the ratepayers that Lake _ Logan would be handed over to the city intact in the erven t of the poll going through. To that end a letter that would be read to them would be written by .the Education Board to the Harbour Board with an interpretation of the clause headed “Education .Board site” in the Harbour Board’s letter of August 29 to the City Council. There seemed to be some doubt as to the exact meaning of that paragraph in the Harbour Board’s letter; and the Education Board, in order to interpret it and have everything clear, and incidentally so that no misunderstandings could arise in the future about it, was prepared, after conference with the Harbour Board delegation to write the following letter to the Harbour Board. The Harbour Board would consider it at its meeting nest Monday. The letter was to this effect:— The Otago Education Board hereby assures the Otago Harbour Board, that in the event of the vote of the ratepayers sanctioning the construction of a highway, the Education Board agrees to accept the now site, but on the distinct understanding that, should the highway' not be constructed then, the Education Board revert to the site originally granted on Lake Logan.

That was the letter that would be written by the Education Board to the Harbour Board, and he trusted that with the support and influence of the delegates present, including the chairman, the position as outlined by the Education Board would bo accepted. He thought it was very necessary that that should go through- Otherwise the whole position would be hung up. He felt, therefore, that the Harbour Board, in the interests of the citizens, would have that passed, and the City Council would immediately take steps to take a poll of the ratepayers. He was very pleased that the outcome of the conference had been so satisfactory, and that this now meant a final end to all controversy that had arisen between the respective bodies. He thanked the delegates for their attendance, and added that the matter would now go to tho ratepayers for their decision.