IMPROVING THE PARK

Wairarapa Age, 16 March 1929, Page 5

IMPROVING THE PARK

J SUGGESTIONS BY SPORTS BODIES. MAYOR DOES NOT FAVOUR LOAN QUEfc/MONIS FOR THE BOROUGH COUNCIL At the request of some representatives of sports bodies and other organisations, the Mayor (Mr. T. Jordan) and Councillor Peacock (chairman of the Park Committee) accompanied them in an informal round of inspection of the Park on Thursday afternoon. Various suggestions were made by the sports Tepreacntatives, one of them being that the fencing of the Park should be improved so as to prevent people making an unauthorised <*rwtry without paying at times when a change is being made for admission. It was stated that receipts were sometime* reduced in this way by from thirty to ► fifty per cent* Another suggestion ww i that a new grandstand was badly > needed and alrno more up-to-date plant . in the shape of motor mowers. The Mayor promised to obtain an estimate from tho Borough Engineer of the cost of new fencing along the Park Avenue frontage of the Park.

Regarding the other improvements aug t gested he asked, where the money was to come from? Was it pnopowr*! that an additional rate should be struck, or that wane of the expenditure now hewing made on the streets should be diverted? Receiving the answer "no” to both these questions, and »tiM aide i ing where the money for a new grand- . stand, etc. was tn come from, he was told that perhaps the local sports bod* ies could help During the informal tour of inspection, no mention was made of a loan, ’ but it is stated! that some of the sports representatives are thinking of proposing that the council should raise a loan ’ for Park improvements. The sum of ’ £2OOO has been mentioned, and it has been suggested that the council should ’ use part of this money to take over the remaining liability on the Park ’ lighting, which stands meantime at ' about £5OO, and the remaining babil ity of £l5O on the kerbing round the Oval, and that the balance should be 1 spent on further improvements. Ome proposal is that an electric, pump eesting about. £lo'. should lie installed to pump water from the lake for the wa+ering of the Oval. Part of the suggestion is that the iocal sports bodies should be looked to to provide annually a substantial part of the interest and

sinking fund on the proposed lean. Interviewed by an "Age” representative yesterday, the Mayor said that he would be definitely opposed to raiding a loan for such improvements an had been suggested in the Park. "In my opinion, a loan proposal! of thfia kind would be turned down flat by the Local Government Loans Board," said Mr Jordan, "and if the board did not turn it dawn, I believe the ratepayers of the town would. We have refrained recentfly from asking the ratepayers to enaction loans for any purpose.. We ecre endeavouring to carry on within our income, and we a r o succeeding tolerably well.” There was no reason, the Mayor

maintained, to bo dissatisfied with the general condition of the Park. Large sums could, of course, easily be spent

on its improvement. but as it stool it was a very pleasant resort, with a fine array of trees and other growth. The development of the Plank would be easier but for the fact that it had: not 'a very great depth of soil over the gravel that lay underneath. The right policy for the council in regulating its expenditure was to get essentials first, and it should be a perfectly sound and satisfactory policy to improve the Park gradually as time went on and funds became available.

The whole question of the extent to which the Park was to be used aw a yport k ground, the Mayer added, called for consideration by the council. The ruling aim, in his opinion, must be to safeguard the rights of the public to the use of the Park as a recreation reserve. They had another ground—the Memorial Park—which was already used by some sports bodies and might be used by others. Mt Jordan said he was not in favour of erecting high barrier fences in any gart of the Park Regarding .the fence on Park Avenue for which he had undertaken to obtain an estimate, his idea was th®t it thould be a light cyclone wire fence, barked by a hedge, the latter ultimately to become the fence. They already had a fine hedge on the Dixon Street frontage.