ORIENTAL BAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1048, 10 February 1911, Page 3

ORIENTAL BAY.

'.'■''' .'" -— ■ -+r .' ' • CITY'S PRINCIPAL PROMENADE. SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS.' .' Oriental Day is Wellington's finest— indeed its only—raarino parade, and why it has not been given moro attention in the past is a mystery to all who find a particular charm in. what used to bo called a walk "round tho'rocks." What could bo done in tho way of tidying up a forcshoro was illustrated when tho narbour Board, somo tivo'or six years ago, decided to construct tho present boat harbour. Then tho City Council's hand was forced, and it had to como into lino and form tho present splendid parado and cycle track, which extends as far as the municipal baths at To Aro. ' There is much room for improvement farther on. The dangerously narrow road at Fitzgerald's Point has been.widened out to a concrete, faco wall—work that his occupied nino months or more. Tho spaco_in between the old road and tho wall has been filled up with painful slowness with rubbish and clinkers, and though it is now up to tho level'of the road, it is not open for traffic. Further on, in the Bay proper, a.low too wall was built about half-way across tho crescent about two years ago, and tho road was widened with a bit of filling.- The method of filling has not improved the beach. An old • resident of, tho Bay, who knows every yard of its shores, states that in rough weather at high tido tho boulders from the edgo of the filling aro washed down on. to tho beach, which• process has in some parts destroyed what used to be nico patches-of "sand,'-where the children waded contentedly nnd with safety. Now, if they are bold enough to attempt to wado •t all in these places they invariably knock their feet about. Tho same informant ■aid-that no attempt has been made to prevent the filling from washing out from behind'the. concrete wall at Fitzgerald's Point until quite recently, when tho wall was joined up to tho solid road formation. '.Farther round at' what is sometimes known as Thomas's Point, there is another section of a-face wall, a fugitive bit of work tho continuation of which years ago would havo improved tho ■ppearanco of tho Bay 500 per cent. Behind; this wall, says "Resident." hundreds of tons of rotten rock filling must , have been emptied, but no attempt has, as far as ho ■is .aware, ever been -made to keep this from being washed away, so it has vanished bit by bit with every tide, and at the present time the boulders from behind bestrew , tho - adjacent beach, and there is room for hundreds of tons more. '.'.. J.. ... Agitations for ~ the , improvement. of Oriental Bay havo'as a rule been initiated by.residents and .it .is only natural that that should bo so, . but, "Resident" points, out, tho bay is an asset of tho very greatest valuo to every citizen in Wellington, ■ bo. ho resident in Willis Street, Tinakori Road, or Newtown, as it is practically tho only harbour view parade left tho city; now that the; Thorndon Esplanade is . gradually ■ vanishing under the Railway Department's operations. What is required is the continuation of the concrete wall from Fitzgerald's Point, round to tho foot of Rosoneath Road (near the kerosene stone) and the road widened where necessary (from Wilkinson's onto a point a hundred yards beyond tho tramway terminus). "Resident" is of opinion that it would be a good investment for tho City Council to place a sum of money on tho estimates for tho coming financial" year for this work, get it' dono : within tho year (there aro no engineering difficulties) and for ever be- done with beautiful Oriental Bay. •'.