LAND AND WATER SPORTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 642, 19 April 1929, Page 13

LAND AND WATER SPORTS

PANMURE BASIN PROJECT BIG DEVELOPMENT PLAN A comprehensive proposal to transform the Panmure Basin into a recreation and play area has been submitted by Mr. E. V. Blake and Mr. Brinsden to the Mount Wellington Road Board. It is proposed that the basin, which lies between Mount Wellington and Panmure. should provide recreation areas and sports grounds around the lake, embellished by trees. The Road Board considered the re- ; I sponsibility to rest upon the Panmure j Domain Board and district sports or- ! ganisation, but it will be brought be- ! loro the residents in the district. It ! is proposed that a weir should be built j with the Tamaki estuary and the water within the basin retained at a definite minimum level, a device already applied 1 to the Orakci basin. The dual designers * f this plan suggest that the development could proceed gradually, so that no heavy cost would bo involved at any one stage. The final result would be a park providing for land and water sports, and the transformation of the basin itself, which, under present conditions, is an j unsightly mud flat at low tide. The layout, it is explained, is quite practicable and could be carried out in successive stages at no great cost, its principal points of interest being that it is proposed that a weir | should be constructed at the neck to j retain the water at a definite minimum j level and that a stone or other retaining wall be erected at varying distances J from the present high-water mark and the space behind reclaimed by . means of a suctioaa dredge. Provision' has been allowed in the plan for football and cricket grounds, tennis courts. bowls, etc., enclosed places for model yachts and canoes and a large area retained of open water. With greater expenditure a larger area for sports purposes at the western end could be reclaimed, but the plan has been prepared as a basis for discussion and to give the board some plan on which it could begin to work.