LEASING THE TOWN BELT.

Otago Witness, Issue 787, 28 December 1866, Page 2

LEASING THE TOWN BELT.

(From the Daily Times, December 23.) The cases of the City Council, and of the opponents to the leases of the Town Belt, are now fairly before the public. More issues than one are raised. First, there is the question of the expediency of granting leases upon the terms proposed by the City Council ; next, there are the allegations against the character and conduct of the members of the Council ; and lastly, there are the extreme proposals of the opponents to the leases. There seems no reason whatever to recall the opinion, that the Council have not been judicious in fixing the terms of the leases. They have not kept sufficiently in mind, that the Town Belt is essentially to be devoted to the purposes of recreation, and that this object should be the primary one kept in view in deciding upon any plan for disposing of it. The very fact of giving possession of the land for a long term of years, is inconsistent with reserving to the citizens tbe free use of it. It is idle to talk of conditions inserted in leases. What is everybody's business is nobody's business. Who is there to exercise the amount of supervision which would be necessary to guard against that gradual proneness to exercise the right of ownership which is natural to the long-continued possession of ! a piece of land ? There is little room to I question that, under the conditions proposed, the tendency would be to increase the rights of the lessees. The rents to be paid are sufficient to make it certain that the lessees mean to use the ground ; and

their use of it is more or less inconsistent with its being used by the public. Once let it be understood that, to all intents and purposes, possession ha 3 passed away for fourteen years, and the present generation will cease to trouble itself much about obtaining, for public uses, land for which private individuals are pay ; m high rents. The best that couM be hoped would be to save the land thu3 leased from hecoming, in more ways than one, a nuisance. Very soon it would be said, " Let the lessees build and make the Belt respectable and ornamental." In short, humanly speaking, it is certain the leases once granted, possession once obtained, expenditure once incurred, the tendency would be to make the terms more and more allied to the tenure of an absolute estate. When some le ac ee would offer to improve the property by putting up a building worth a couple of thousands or so, or to pay an additional 10s. an acre per annum, where would be the City Council disposed to refuse so tempting an offer? In fact, they would be wrong to do so. It would be a mistake to refuse, because the terms of the proposed leases are such as are altogether inconsistent with public use of the land ; and this once recognised, as it soon would be, there would be no medium to the course of improving the private tenure so as to make it as beneficial to the lessors and lessees as possible.

But all this does not prove the second point to which we have, referred, the aspersions cast upon the Council. To our mind, the defence embodied in the report of the Reserves Committee, read at the special meeting a few days ago, conclusively shows that the Council have not been actuated by the personal and interested motives which have been insinuated. They have undoubtedly erred in judgment. They seem under the pressure of severe pecuniary embarrassments, and"rightly deeming that the Belt at present is put to grossly improper uses, to have rushed to the conclusion that they were justified in dealing with it independent of its primary purpose as a recreation ground. They gave as large a publicity as they could to their intentions, and the absence of the opposition which subsequently was aroused, no doubt lulled them into a further confirmation of the belief that the people would be glad to see theßeltused as a means of raising revenue, coupled with the condition of it* being redeemed from a public nuisance, although at the expense of forfeiting its public uses. It is exceedintzly ea«y to insinuate accusations of interested motives, and exceedingly difficult to disprove them. To commence with, people can hardly bring themselves to attempt a defence against dishonoring imputations. The gui s'exeuse s'occuse stares them in the face. In very pride they feel compelled to leave their defence to the reputation they enjoy. "It is beneath u%" they naturally think, " to attempt to combat " the opinions of those who csn believe "we would act dishonorably." In the present case we do not notice one justification or proof of the insinuations thrown out; and we venture to add, notwithstanding the unpopularity which not unnaturally has overtaken the City Council since the fear of losing the Belt has been aroused, that there are few dispassionate persons who consider the Council either a corrupt or self-seeking body. We are disposed to believe that, on the whole, it is a high charactered Council, more than equal to tie average of like houies. There is besides no doubt that i's members devote a great deal of time and attention to their duties; and, in short, the citizens rr>i;ht go further and fare worse. A broad line may therefore he drawn between disapproval of the terms upin which it is proposed to lease the Belt, and the wholesale condemnation visited upon the Council. The citizens are under considerable obligations to those gentlemen who have aroused them to a sense of tbe evil of allowing the Town B a lt to be alienated in a manner which would destroy the intentions according to which it has been reserved. One is not entitled to criticise too closely favors gratuitously bestowed, otherwise it might be added that some of the volunteers are over kind. It is one thing to have established, as no doubt they have established, that the proposed leases are injudicious and illegal; another to upset the whole system of Municipal Government. When it became clear thr.t the contemplated leases in° volved an infraction of the conditions upon which the ground was held in trust, that point alone was sufficient to prove that the leases, as oroposed, were unwise, if not illegal. When it was further found, on investigation, that on account of the necessary formula not having been gonethrough, the Council were absolutely powerless to grant the leasep, surely enough was ascertained ; and for the rest, public opinion might be left to express itself through the Council and the Executive. But some of these gentlemen aim at nothing less than asupersedureof municipal control. They ask for a Commission to be appointed over the head of the Council, to have supreme control in one ot the very matters about which

the citizens are moat interested, — they ask that the City should be deprived of the control of its reserves. Such "was the real bearing of the proposals made by someof the members of the deputation which? waited on the Superintendent on Monday;, it ii gratifying to notice that they were not all of one mind. Certainly it wonldbebe*ter to lease the Town Belt in perpetuity than to have an irresponsible Commissionplaced in command of the interests of the citizens. It would be idle to say that the functions of.the Co r nrnipsioH would be confined to the reserves. If the principle were* good in one case, it would be good in another. Indeed, there is no matter with which a City has lo deal, which more legitimately should be left to the control of tbe' citizens than the reserves for recreation. The way to dispose of, and the amount to> be expended on them, are questions which the citizens interested should purely decide for themselves. There can be no greater mistake than to forget that Municipal Government means Representative Government, and that the care for evils is at the election, booths. If an Appeal Court is to be appointed above the citizens and their repre- ' sentatives, all interest will cease to be taken in the elections — the very result fatal to the success of Municipal Government, And the remedy is certainly no improvement. How long is the enthusiasm of the Commission likely to be maintained ? Mr Prendergast may 3earch out illustrations from the Scriptures during tne long vacation, and apply them to the City Council, but is he likely to descend into fencing and planting the reserves? Mr Bell cannot possibly maintain himself at the same high pressure as during tbe last fewdays ; and besides, to him, as to others^ a seat in the City Council or the Mayorship is open in the ordinary way. If he be above tiisse, he is also above the management of the reserves. He talks about laying out the Belt as a labor of love, and instances what has been done in Auckland. Whilst that city has a pretty place for public resort, its municipal arrangements are shocking. It is ill paved, and filthy ; its sanitary condition is notoriously neglected ; its lanes are crowded with noxious habitations. Auckland is a damsel with a pretty, clean dress en the outside, and draggled, dirty petticoats beneath. Now we say there are other labors connected with the City which have a greater claim on Mr. Bell or any public- spirited citizen's love. The citizens canaot yet afiord to make the Town Belt what it should be, and those funds the Provincial Council is willing to grant to the City can be used for more pressing purposes. Have not the wretched children who wander up and down the town, educating themselves in vice and crime, a greater claim upon the citizens' attention? Is the example of the establishment of public libraries set by nearly all the large cities in the United States, in Europe, and in the United Kingdom not worthy to be followed ? There is a wide difference between alienating the Town Belt and setting up an expensive Commission to compete with the City Council for public moneys. The Municipal authorities can be restrained from issuing any but mere temporary sheep pasturage leases without the intervention of a Commission ; and it will not be an onerous duty to gradually biing within the uses of tha inhabitants portions of the Belt, as money arises sufficient to make them suitable for purposes of pleasure. But the citizens, after the experience they have had with the fees and fines and with the Maori Reserve, would be idiots if they were to listen to the voices of the charmers, and be persuaded to petition the General Government to disallow the Ordinance which actually has for its object the giving them control over the Reserves. We advise our readers to be cautious of what they sign.

The " Bruce Independent" gives the following account of the fatal accident to Mr Pasco, the intelligence ot which reached ua two days ago by telegram : — "We are exceedingly sorry to have to record the death by drowning of Mr Thomas Pasco, a young man well known in this district. Mr Pasco has for some time past been in the employ of Messrs Calcufct and Menlove, of the Hyde Home Station, Switzers, and last week be was on bis way to the statioa, af t'T a visit to Tokomairiro. The Mataura was very much swollen on Tuesda- , out Pasco and another man (nam;d Ky!e, we believe), attempted to cross atM'Gibbon's Ford. Kyle got through without much difficulty, and looking back saw Pasco following. As the horse of the latter attempted to get up the bank of the stream, Posco, apparently rendered giddy by the rushing waters, slipped off, and was carried down by the current. Too Bpßed with which the river was running rendered any help an imp ssibility. The body has not yet been found, having no doubt bten carried over the falls aud a long way down the river. Pasco was an active, steady young fellow, and a capital rider and swimmer. His brother, Mr John Pasco, and brother-in-law, Mr Roskruga, reside ia the Lakes district."

In Ihe Province of Neson, Mr Oswald Curtis has announced himself a candidate fo? the SuperinteudeDcy, vacsnt by the resignation of Mr Saunders*.