The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO.” TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1937. Expanding The City’s Open Spaces

Southland Times, Issue 23166, 6 April 1937, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO.” TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1937. Expanding The City’s Open Spaces

The Invercargill City Council has under consideration at the present time two proposals to increase the area of the city s open spaces. One is the very generous offer by Mr James Macalister of a gift of a block of about 15 acres at the end of Beatrice street. This gift is subject to certain conditions regarding the development of the land which committees of the council are now discussing. The other proposal, which has been put before the council in the form of a widely-signed petition, is that the city should purchase an area of about 22 acres owned by the Thomson Estate and adjoining Turnbull Thomson Park. This area has a frontage of about half a mile on the East road and a short frontage on Lindisfarne road. It is an attractive block of land, with many features to commend it as one of the city s future playing-fields, and is reported to be obtainable at a reasonable price. With the present park it would form a reserve of over 100 acres in a part of the city which is by no means well endowed with recreation grounds. Each of these two proposals involves the expenditure of money and must accordingly be examined on its merits. But clearly this is an occasion when members of the council should try to take a long view of their responsibilities to the city. There are various accepted standards for the proportion of a city area that should be set aside for recreation grounds. The proportion adopted in the London town planning scheme, which may be considered the most authoritative standard, is 10 per cent, of the whole area plus seven acres for each 1000 people. On this scale Invercargill, excluding the reclamation area, should have 500 acres of reserves on the basis of today’s population and 800 acres on the basis of the ’ultimate population within the present city area. The existing reserves total 420 acres — less than what is considered desirable at the present time and barely more than half of what is considered desirable for the future. Moreover, apart from Turnbull Thomson Park, which was a gift, there have been practically no additions to the city’s reserves since the very early days. In dealing with matters like town planning and the acquisition of parks and reserves the council must constantly look forward to the day when the population of the city will be two or three times its present size. As time goes on large recreation areas of the kind that are at present available will become increasingly necessary; but they will be increasingly difficult to obtain and increasingly expensive. There is every reason why they should be obtained now and held for the future. To spread the cost of their acquisition or development over a period of years would not be unfair, for the ratepayers of the future rather than the ratepayers of the present day will have the pleasure of using them. The important point is that an authority like the City Council should keep always in mind the necessity of expanding the city’s open spaces and lose no opportunity—within reason—to acquire suitable new areas of land.