GIRLS' COLLEGE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 192, 10 May 1921, Page 6

GIRLS' COLLEGE

BATTLE OF THE SITES A SURVEY OF THREE MINISTER’S CHOICE ENDORSED Yesterday Mr. G. Mitchell, M.P., organiser of the Wellington Progress I/eague, accompanied by Dr. White and Press representatives, paid a visit of inspection to the three sites which have been mentioned in the controversy over tho new Girls' College. The proposed site at South Kilbirnie was first visited. This is that stretch of' sand dunes, clinker, and rubbish on the southern side of Coutts Road (which is traversed by the Seatoun and Miramar trams), and is bounded to the west by the Association Football Park, and stretches away over sand-hills to the east, and similarly to the south until It joins with the City Council’s 100-ncre partlyfoiruod. park, known at present as the Lyall Bay Reserve. The area, which is extensive, belongs to the H. D. Crawford estate. It lies for the meet part slightly below the level of Coutts Street, and a good deal of scoop-levelling would have to be done witji help from the many little sand-hills in the vicinity. It would then have to be “earthed” nnd turfed. The most favourable feature is that there is ample space on probably the lowest level above the highwater mark to be found in Wellington. Otherwise it is on the isthmus, which gets the wind from TxAh north and south. From the north the wind gets a clean sweep up Salek Street from Evans Bay on to the site, while one only has to stand on one of the many dune' to catch the gleam of the whitelipped breakers as they curl on the Leach nt Lyall Bay. The sand nuisance still exists nt Lyall Bay. Probably whan the City Council turfs its hundred seres, and the rest of the land is more ■closely built upon this will be abated, but it still has to be reckoned with in windy Weather. The future holds much for Lyall Bay and Miramar, but for the present the site can only lie regarded as being located on the outer fringe of Wellington’s population. The Town Belt Site. Tho site proposed by Mr. Robert Darroch was described by him as at the top of Constable Street. It is most readily approached from that point, but the site itself consists of that part of the Town Belt which slopes from the Hospital Road (which follows the ridge pretty well from the side of the new Fire Brigade station) down to the lower levels of Kilbirnie. The site is certainly a good one. i There is quite a good far-spreading saddle to take a large building, and the space for ground* (with perhaps a fair amount cf excavation) is only limited .by the area of the belt. At present the ground is planted. and a miniature forest of young blue-gums is beginning to lend a brightening effect to the landscape. The site commands a view of Kilbirnie (with Hataitai in the distance 1q the north), Evans Bay, and Lyall Boy. Its chief drawbacks are that it is on the wrong side of the hill, and it is Town Belt. Mr. Mitchell pointed out that if the City Council refused the site of the Newtown School, in the heart of Newtown, for a few .acres of Town Belt, near the Newtown Tennis Club’s courts, was it likely that they would part with these planted slopes in Kilbirnie for an equivalent. area of the college reserve at the top of the ridge? He did not think that was likely, and if that were so it rendered Mr. Darroch’s proposal less feasible than the Kilbirnie South proposal. He admitted that if the Town Belt were thrown open several good sites might be found,- although perhaps .not so central as the ono proposed by Mr. Darroch. The Observatory Site.

Returning to town the party was taken by way r of Ellice and Austin Streets to the site proposed for the Girls’ College in the College Reserve. The location of this site has much in its favour. It is commanding in outlook, fortunate in environment, and whilst in a free, airy, and elevated position, it is as central as anyone could wish. Topographically it is a more difficult bit of hillside than the Town Belt site. The hill faces are fairly steep, and all the flat ground required lias to be made. Observatory Hill has- to be decapitated to make a site for the school building (which has been fully described in these columns), and the spoil therefrom will havo to be shot down to form the tennis grounds in the gully that trends south-east from the end of Austin Street. Immediately at the back (the south) of tho school site is a fairly level hilltop about on' a level with the top of the Observatory, capable, with a little excavation, of being turned into a flat of 2| acres. On the top of the ridge it is said there is a good site for a hockey ground. As far as the extent of the excavations is concerned, Mr. Mitchell stated that the contract price for excavating the school site was about .£2-190. Level groitnd could 'be more easily made both nt Kilbirnie South and on the Town Belt site, but apart from that the College Reserve had many points in its favour. It is in close touch with a congested part of residential Wellington, and yet out of it. It is on the bright, warm side of the hill. The cattle know that, for they allow no gorse to grojv on the western slope, whilst on the other side of the ridge (which the cows avoid) it is allowed full fling. The boys’ baths have been made a point of objection. If the Boys’ College can have a swimming bath, why, it is urged, not the girls? Why should not the girls take over tho boys’ bath (even if it is a memorial bath), and another and better bath provided for the boys in closer proximity to the proposed site of the new Boys’ College (at the back of the brick school) ?