A CIVIC ASSET

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2300, 6 November 1914, Page 8

A CIVIC ASSET

OUTLYING MARINE DRIVES PROTECTIVE WORKS IN HAND Wellington has a wonderful asset in her marine drives. There is no other city in Australasia, +liat can offer finer harbour and ocean-side drives , than, this eity—a fact that, is hardly appreciated by local residents .who are not, perhaps, slaves to tho motor habit. There are at least: three drives which follow •the blue-of the sea, and yet all within neighbourly touch with the city. Ono of the most popular drives is probably this run to the Hutt, or even round to Day's Bay by way of* Potone and the new pips bridge, but that trip, though it skirts the inner harbour, does not compare with the over-changing views \ihich meet the' eye on the Queen's Drive. Oriental, Evans, Lyall, and Island Bays each have their own special, beauties of configuration and colouring, and when the breeze is from the south there is always the wild play of the shattered. breakers among the rocks ,to fascinate the eye. The Queen's Drive may even be improved by proceeding to town via Happy Valley, or by commencing tho trip by tho ascent to Brooklyn, and' whirring down the veidant canyon to the sea. The other marine drive takes in the Oriental and, Evans Bay" portion of the Queen's Drive, and then continues along the eastern side of Evans Bay Tound Point Halswell, past Scorching - and Kaxaka .Bays to' Seatoun, and then' citywards through the tunnel.

None of these drives is perfect-from a motorist's, or even a horseman's, point of view, but in. the case of the Queen's Drive an attempt is being made by the City Council to render it less dangerous at certain points than utter neglect ■ would make'it. • At a point about 100 yards or more south of the Patent Slip, where certain erosions caused by-the sea were eating the Toad away, a sea wall 'about a couple of hundred yards long is being constructed. The work which is- being carried out by the City' Engineer's Department consists of a rubble wall, faced with about sis inches of concrete, which rises to tho level of the road almost, but not quite, perpendicularly. By carefully picking and . packing the rubble a stout but comparatively cheap wall is provided. .Holes are being left in the top of the wall for tho purpose of a galvanised pipe-railing. This work means the broadening, of the'road to thrice its' former width, and. will make the road safe for traflje and immune from further erosion. There are several points along tho' road where, similar work is required, to be done, and will have to be done in the near future. One place is just about a couple of chains from Point ■-Jeriiinwhara. There tho sea has eaten into the bank, making the actual road almost too narrow to allow; of a. motor-cycle passing a ear. '.This' will have to be attended to--in the not-far--distant'future. Further concrete wall protective work is heing done on. the.; ■road between Island Bay and Hanpy Valley—a point that is fully exposed to tho fury of the seas during a southerly storm. Some time in the future this wonderful drive, will be appraised, at its true value, and the'road will be.widened and proteoted .wherever such improvements are found to bo needed.