CITY MOTOR CAMP

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 151, 22 March 1939, Page 12

CITY MOTOR CAMP

Visit Of Inspection To Miramar North Site WORK OF PREPARATION Members of the reserves committee of the Wellington City Council, Crs. W. Duncan (chairman), M. F. Luckie, L. McKenzie, and J. L. Macalister, accompanied by the city engineer, Mr. K. E. Luke, and the city treasurer, Mr. Findlay Martin, paid a visit to the site of the new city motor camp in Miramar North -yesterday afternoon to inspect what had been done so far, and to decide questions concerning the lay-out which had to be settled on the ground. This area of city land, at the northern end of Darlington Road, has been robbed of its former character since the new year. Then it was a rather pleasant little bit of rural scrub and turf countryside, with a stream meandering down the centre from two picturesque valleys that run toward Mount Crawford. Now the whole of the top soil has been ripped about by a bull-dozer Darlington Road has been extended three or four chains into the area, and below, to the right as one enters, the lower land has been roughly terraced. Stacked on each level are great mounds of soil ready to be spread over the camp sites of the future. The whole area has been drained. The entrance road, now 40 feet in breadth, will provide camping grounds on the eastern side, and paths or steps will lead to the receding terraces below. Members of the committee are fully alive to the likelihood of the ground proving too small for the requirements of the future, and are already looking round for possible means of an extension.' Messrs. R. and E. Tingey have offered the city council ■ the use of a nearby area at the back of their new paint factory for 12 months free of cost, but between the city camp site and the factory there is an area of nearly flat land of varying width which belongs to the Townsend estate. This ground, which extends right down to the boundaries of the new Miramar North School, would make an ideal extension of the camp site, if the land could be purchased at a reasonable price. Indeed, the picturesque but rather precipitous hills that rise from this valley to the westward would make a fine reserve for the future, to serve the need of the big population Miramar will carry 20 years hence. All round this neighbourhood there is evidence of building progress, thanks to a great eStent to the provision of the new school. On all levels houses are being constructed rapidly, so that it is clear that a few years will see Miramar North just as thickly populated as Miramar South. One of the features of file camp site is that it is protected from the northerly winds.