PRESERVING AN AMENITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24833, 5 February 1942, Page 4

PRESERVING AN AMENITY

The desire to maintain intact as much as possible of the heritage of native bush which Dunedin possesses is fortunately strong in the minds of a considerable section of our citizens. Public opinion on this question inevitably comes into conflict, from time to time, with policy as determined by the City Council. A case in point is provided by the decision of the council, on the recommendation of the Public Works and Water Committees, to construct a metal track from the present terminus of Polwarth road through portion of the Ross Creek reservoir area, for the purpose of giving better access to " a number of essential and related operational points on the water supply system." When this proposal was first mooted, as part of a necessary developmental programme, fears, were expressed that the destruction of the lovely School Creek gully might result. This would indeed have been a regrettable outcome, for bush and water reserves, with the sanctuary that they give to the native bird life, are not so common even in Dunedin —so well endowed in this respect compared with other New Zealand cities—that care should not be taken to preserve them. Happily, however, there is every indication that the City Council is alive to the responsibility that rests upon it for the preservation of this attractive locality. At Monday evening's meeting of the council the Mayor gave a definite assurance that the bush through which the needed track must pass would not be interfered with before the Native Bush Protection Society had been given an opportunity to inspect the area and consider the council's proposals. The chairman of the Water Committee was also able to say that the track for the greater part of its length would traverse scrub and grass land, and the assumption must be that where it intrudes upon the bush itself it will be cut discreetly, with a proper regard for the safeguarding of what is undoubtedly a civic amenity.