CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUNDS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 14 June 1913, Page 5

CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUNDS.

NO PLAT, NO CHILD, WHAT SOME OTHER CITIES DO.

[Bt Imogen.]

A little whilo ago we heard much of the need for beautifying the city of Wellington, and a tremendous effort was made to obtain funds with which to carry out v ,ho work. The setting aside of further Reserves tor sport was another matter that from time to time agitated the public male mind, but not so much has been eaid of the real necessity for setting asiclo land for equipping playgrounds for the ohildren- In America many ot the great cities have recognised this need and have carefully studied and carried out plans for providing happy, healthy. Bound for their youthful citieons. Large i>sm3 of money have been expended for such purposes, New York alone spending something like upon playgrounds. • It has been regarded as bejng money exceedingly well spent. [Too Tiny for School: No Place to Play. Wellington certainly is, not New. York, or anything liko New York yet, but who h to say what it may become in the course of time, especially at its present rate of Tomoving mountains? Lven now it has its congested areas in the heart of the city, squalid, tumble-down, dark, dreary hovels not fit'to house tho_ number of people who crowd into their tow rooms. There are narrow, dismal streets into which very little sunshine falls, with never a flower, or tree, or even blade ot grass to suggest something of the ]oy that . ought to exist in life. And it is in such surroundings as these that numbers ot tiny children, too tiny to go to school, too' young yet to recognise the uneven hand of Fate that so blindly handicaps them from the very start of life, spend their days from morning to dusk—and after, sometimes. It is for children' such as these that playgrounds are so necessary, and it ought not to be difficult to find some enclosure open to all the sunshine that blesses the city, some spot to plant ,with a border of flowers and shrubs (to Bncourago the lovo of the beautiful that is sown, no matter how obscurely in every soul) and to have it safeguarded from all undesirable visitors, by always having someone in charge to see that all is well. With sand-heaps, swings, games, and Elenty of shelter, a babies' paradise could e provided at a fairly moderate cost, ffhere are far 'too many dangers stalking abroad for the minds of mothers to be at rest, and to know that their little ones are safe and happily at play with others in the midst of bright, wholesomo surroundings, in tho charge of some reliable

jfromau supervisor, would lighten the load ' pt worry and anxiety from the minds/ of many powerless to make any alteration in their surrounding. ■ Every suburb should anticipate the probfcbility of future growth ,and crowding, and set aside a piece of ground as an inalienable hunting ground for the children of future generations. Although they may now have plent of space for children to roam about in, such a condition 'of things is not' likely to be everlasting and the makers of citie3, as part of their duties, have to look ahead and anticipate tho needs of the future. .What they do in America. In a Hoyal Commission for tho Improvement of City and Suburbs, Sydney, that was held some time ago, it was pointed out that "intimately related to tho housing problem was the question of providing playgrounds for children in tie more densely populated parts of the city and suburbs. .Thousands of children had no other playground than the street, with cU its attendant dangers both tcbody and mind;' a-most unpromising school for tho production of good citizens. Great attention had been devoted to this subject in American cities. Chicago had a number of small parks, ranging in size from four acres upwards, in which facuities have been provided for outdoor games and athletics, gymnasia, open-air swimming basins, swings, sand heaps, trading pools, together with a club building containing a hall for public entertainments, reading-rooms, indoor gymnasia; and baths. "In addition to these parks, Chicago had opened municipal playgrounds wherever an ope» space couldibo secured. Upwards of a million children played in those grounds annually. Experience hod jhown that the playgrounds elfected a marked improvement in the physical derelopment of tho children, and in tho moral tone of the neighbourhood. The Metropolitan Park Commission recommended the opening of eighLy-four moro Small purks and playgrounds for tho tencfit of Chicago's citizens." _ Anion" other United States cities, Boston had long wrestled with tho problem of providing the people with playgwitnds, end had invested over half « rSillion pounds in the creation of them. No Flap for the Child. At a congress of.the Playgrounds Association'of America, held in Boston, Dr. Woods Hutchinson said that "half a century ago our social mid industrial organ isation was so loose that there was plenty of room for the child to grow up in the gaps and interspaces. 'Now it-was so compact that he scarcely.had breathing room and no play room. We had gono fai to civilise the business ol play out; ol existence. Then, our cities were, like Thackeray's Washington, 'cities of magnificent distances.' Now, ground was sold by tho sijimro I'oot, and every inch of it utilised for factory, store, street, or railway truck. Wo had even abolished the back alley, that paradise of adventure. The modern city child had lost his most precious birthright, tho hack yard. Even in smaller towns, where some breathing space still surrojindod the buildings, the

blight of the lawn mower had descended upon it. Lawns and flowers had taken the place of 'our yard/ with its brickbats, and barrels, and boards, and all its superb possibilities for play and cmpiro-build-ing. Either the grass or tho children must go, Nq place for play, no placo ior the child!" A Nook for Children in the Basin Reserve. Those views may soon bo growing applicable tn certain portions of ■Wellington. It is interesting, how-over, and hopeful, to hear that the idea is being discussed among a few -Wellington women of approaching tho City Council and asking for ft corner of ground in the Basin Kescrvo to be set aside as ft 'playground for children. If tho ground bo granted, they hope to equip' it with tho necessary appliances, and from, among their number or from other women interested in {lie scheme, provido by turns a daily supervisor over the safety of tho littlo ones. It is, or will be, a modest beginning in an undertaking that many of the most advanced cities in the world recogniso as being an absolute necessity. Perhaps the Carnival Committee may see its way to tho equipment of the playground out of the sum of money at its. disposal. It would certainly be beautifying tho city.