WORK FOR EX-SOLDIERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 444, 28 August 1928, Page 12

WORK FOR EX-SOLDIERS

ONEHUNGA PLAYING , AREA £3,500 TO BE SPENT Proposals for permanently laying out the Onehunga Recreation Reserve, an area of about 30 acres, were submitted to the Onehunga Borough Council last evening, by Cr. R. G. Speight, chairman of the Reserves Committee. The Patriotic Association and the Government are to provide the £3,500 necessary. The work is to be done by unemployed soldiers. Recognising that population is fast outstripping the playing areas and recreation endowments of the isthmus, the committee recommended that the whole of the reserve be brought to a permanent level, and that a row of trees running through the ground be felled. This will allow of increasing the number of football grounds from five to 11, and provision is made for a cricket field as well as cycling aTid running tracks. The committee has been in negotiation with the Auckland Patriotic Association with the object of giving the work to unemployed soldiers. The Patriotic Association has agreed to donate one-half of the cost of the labour, and it is expected that the Government will grant the usual subsidy of pound for pound. Cr. Speight said that the Government valuation of the reserve was £13,325, and the Act gave the council power to make a charge for admission on 15 days in each year. The reserve was vested in the borough council in trust for the people of the County of Eden. The Reserves Committee had met the representatives of the Patriotic Association and were assured that the work could be carried out and that the area lent itself to be converted into a first-class playing area. Cr. E. Morton considered that the sporting clubs of the district would provide an annual amount necessary for the upkeep of grounds and on his motion the council approved of the scheme. The Reserves Committee was instructed to carry on and was given power to a.ct.