The Centenary Exhibition Site

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 104, 26 January 1935, Page 9

The Centenary Exhibition Site

Sir, —I have Called attention previously to the beauty of Paremata as a* exhibition site, if, as I have suggested, a fresh water lake is constructed out ef the useless salt-water inlet. The locality wiU be brought within some half-houri or so of Lambton when the line is electrified and the new tunnel, opened. Provided always that the locality is considered suitable for such an important exhibition as our centenary warrants, then a comprehensive view of the situation may well be taken at so early a stage as this.

Our palatial new railway station at Lambton is the starting point. Here we are building for beauty, and also inculcating ugliness in a huge railway yard which will become a blot on the landscape unless prompt steps are taken. A railway engineer never deems beauty essential, and smuts and grease and grime are part of his daily grind. If the yard were only dressed with pure white seashell and bright flower borders provided, then an electric train servie'e could be a thing of beauty—not grime and ugliness. Then the hideous electric poles -might well be discarded for something a little more picturesque. Our . railway carriages could be made beautiful with fresh green and white paint and liberal use of soap and beeswax. Next, there is an unsightly foreshore before reaching the tunnel. This could be simply and inexpensively improved if the Harbour Board chose to pump the sand and silt from deep water, as was done in the case of the Dunedin Exhibition, and would give citizens for all time the pleasure of a sandy foreshore. Once out of the tunnel at Tawa Flat again one is faced with sordidness where at such little Cost could be made a ramp of wild flowers and beauty. An exhibition demands it. Then the unfortunate shore of Porirua Harbour, that has been no badly maimed by ruthless makers of railway and road, in the past, could be healed by adopting the process in use on the Hutt River for gravel lifting, and the sand and silt drawn in to make once again a curving and beautiful foreshore. Two distinct railway lines can serve | this exhibition site —a main-trunk and a i suburban. The suburban one is in use now. via Hobsonville. The main trunk, via the new tunnel, could be deviated at Porirua and pass over the suburban line by the usual method, of course, and thence by way of the valley to the right into to lower Horokiwi valley to Pahautanui, where beauty of streams and pastures makes the most glorious setting one can well desire for so great an under, taking as our Centenary Exhibition. I am, etc., MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. Paraparaumu, January 21.