MCCORMACK’S BAY

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23965, 4 June 1943, Page 9

MCCORMACK’S BAY

♦ PROPOSED INCLUSION IN ( CITY DEPUTATION WAITS ON MINISTER N From Our Parliamentary Reporter a! WELLINGTON, June 3. ti The desire of the Christchurch City I Council to have 30 acres of McCor- « mack’s Bay included in the city to 0 facilitate the development of the area as a recreational centre, and to give " I contiguity between the city and the jr borough of Sumner so that a poll of “ Sumner ratepayers can be taken on the question of amalgamation, was explained to the Minister of Internal t Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) by a . deputation to-day. The deputation consisted of Cr. M. E. Lyons and Mr H. S. a Feast (the Town Clerk), representing 0 the City Council, and Mr C. A, Smith, representing the Redcliffs Burgesses’ Association. ti Mr Lyons said that the City Council wished to afford Sumner people t, the right of self determination, the a right to say whether they should come v into the city or not. This part of Me- a Cormack’s Bay had, by an oversight, r not been included in the area of any s local body, though by special act of hj Parliament the freehold had been hj vested in the Heathcote County Coun- s cil, with the idea that it should be c made into a recreational centre. Heath- i cote did not have the facilities to develop the area, but the city could de- t yelop it, and undertook to do so. The C inclusion of the bay in the city would s give contiguity between the city and c Sumner, and enable the people of Sum- t ner to present another petition to the r borough council asking for a poll of ' ratepayers on the amalgamation ques- r tion. c Answering the Minister, Mr Lyons said that since the inclusion of Mount s Pleasant in the city, successive county I chairmen had expressed the wish that ? the city should develop McCormack’s ] Bay. £ Mr Lyons said it appeared that the * city council would have to address a j memorial to the Minister, asking for ’ the inclusion of the bay in the city. , Opportunity would be given for ob- ‘ jections, and if necessary a commis- j sion could investigate the proposal. Mr A. G. Harper, local Government , 3 officer of the Department of Internal . Affairs, said that the department had ! already received a strong protest , against the proposal. Mr Lyons: It would be news if you hadn’t. Mr Smith said that Mount Pleasant had no recreation area, and Sumner had only two small ones, so that there was a real need for development at McCormack’s Bay. ■The Minister said that all that the city council was doing was to take steps to give the ratepayers a chance to vote on the proposal. Although the necessary procedure went a long way , round, it was the democratic way, , j