The Botanical Gardens

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19371, 8 July 1937, Page 10

The Botanical Gardens

Sir,—Your correspondent, “Utility,’' has suggested some fantastic proposals regarding the utilisation of the reserve known euphemistically as the 'Botanical" Gardens. Whether he is serious or not I am not prepared to say; his remarks could easily be interpreted as a cynical commentary on the masterly inactivity of those responsible for its maintenance. However, I shall assume that he means what he says. While it may be admitted that the gardens are not the source of attraction they might be, scrapping them does not appear to me to be a solution of the trouble. Unfortunately our borough councillors as a body, in their wisdom, do not seem to be obsessed with the idea that amenities of that kind are of any great value to the community; rather .hat (liese reserves are a liability than an asset. Witness what has happened to the Score Point reserve on which I believe there is a loan ol about £3OOO, and which is now lei for a paltry few pounds a year as a narket garden. Half of the area known ns the Botanical Gardens is in .he same position, I might refer alsc o the Park racecourse; here also tin council has, from my point of view seen fit to evade its responsibilities in the cause of economy.

In this matter perhaps I should not criticise the councillors overmuch, either as individual members or as a body. After all, the councillors perform a useful and necessary function, and frequently receive more ’ricks than ha'pence from the man in the street, who is often apt to take a jaundiced and selfish view of matters that come under his notice. Nevertheless, if we have nothing comparable to (he Marine Parade in Napier, to the Pukekura Park in New

D lymouth, or to Caroline Bay in Timaru, it is only because we, as a community, have been satisfied to drift along in the casual way of most isolated and self-satisfied communities. 1 do not wish lo make odious comparisons, but I venture to say that there arc few if any boroughs in the country that expend so little in this direction as is being done here; and that tlie remedy for the present undeveloped condition of our parks and gardens is not a policy, of parsimony but an .adequate scheme of development to meet the conditions of the times. —Yours, etc., OBSERVER.