AUCKLAND’S ISLAND PLAYGROUND

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1021, 11 July 1930, Page 10

AUCKLAND’S ISLAND PLAYGROUND

AY r EAE ago, almost to a day, the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, Minister of Health, outlined the attitude of the new Administration toward New Zealand’s present quarantine policy with particular reference to Motuihi Island. At that time he gave an assurance that the Government would like to complete the gift of Motuihi to the citizens of Auckland by the removal or the abandonment of the quarantine station established there. This intention or, perhaps, ambition has not been realised. Yesterday a notice declaring portion of Motuihi Island to be a public reserve appeared in the Gazette, and the lack of any announcement to the contrary leaves it to be inferred that for the present at any rate Motuihi will continue to be shared by holidaymakers and the Health Department. In view of the situation that arose recently when the presence of smallpox on the Aorangi caused an abrupt closure of Motuihi as a pleasure resort, Aucklanders have some justification for looking the Government’s gift-horse in the mouth. Experience has shown that, in the present circumstances, an island quarantine station is a necessity. This being so, it would be considerably more satisfactory to both the department and the public if the Government set about establishing a new station, thus ridding a lovely island of its awkward dual identity. Within convenient reach of the Auckland waterfront are many islands suitable for quarantine purposes, but there is only one Motuihi. The sheltered beaches, green bushland and glorious freshness of this spot'make it ideal as a Gulf playground for city dwellers, but the continued presence of buildings for the isolation of infectious disease carriers cannot but detract from the enthusiasm with which the island gift is greeted. Further, it seems likely that the uncertainty of tenure, so dramatically demonstrated when the Aorangi called with her passenger patient, will continue.

The declaration now gazetted formally establishes the identity of Motuihi as a public reserve, bringing 410 acres of the former quarantine station under the Public Reserves, Domains and National Parks Act. The next move will be the appointment by proclamation of the Auckland City Council as a Domain Board. At present the council is seeking to widen its powers in that capacity with the object of establishing a fuller control of the island. In the meantime, however, it appears that the problem of the quarantine station still remains. Only a small portion of the island is retained by the station, but neither this nor the formal declaration alters the requirements of quarantine. The City Council is entitled to ask whether it is the intention of the department to remove the station, thus completing the gift, or to allow Auckland’s new playground to be visited and enjoyed, as it were, on sufferance.