CLIVE SQUARE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3251, 2 December 1881, Page 2

CLIVE SQUARE.

[To the Editor of the Daily Teleguiaph.. Sir,—The question put by Mr R. Coup land Harding to the candidates for Napier, " whether they would support a measure to empower the Municipal Council to divert Clive Square from its original purpose as a recreation ground, so as to carry out the Council's resolution to erect Municipal offices on the Square," has been received by the meeting with so much interest that it is evident that this is one of the burning questions here just now. As from the reported Council proceedings, and from the discussions in the newspapers, I infer that it is taken for granted that Clive Square has been originally set aside for a public park, and that the erection of a public building on it would be contrary to the original intentions, I will, with your leave, give a short history of Clive Square, which will prove the generally accepted notion to be erroneous. Scinde Island was surveyed as town of Napier in 1854, and the tactions were sold in 1855. On the original sale-plan, a copy of wbich is to be teen in the Survey Office, Clive Square is traced with a large building in the centre, designated "Athenaeum." This evidently proves that the reserve was not dedicated exclusively as a recreation ground, and that the diversion against which some persons raised such an outcry consists only in the substitution of Council Chambers for an Athenaeum. I trust that the member for Napier will uot be forced ieto the humiliating position to take up the time of the House with this paltry question, with which our Council should be competent to deal. Let us consider what would be the result if every one of the ninety-five members had to introduce only one such bill in a single session. —I am &c, L. Napier, 2nd December, 1881.