The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 722, 8 October 1859, Page 5

The Lyttelton Times.

Saturday, October 8, 1859. Two of the bills introduced by the Provincial Government during the present session involve slight: encroachments on Hagley Park. The Public Hospital Bill appropriates for the site of an hospital about five acres of land between the road and. the river opposite the Scotch Church at the entrance to the Park; and the Hagley Park Mill Bill proposes to make available the mill power at the western extremity of the.Government domain. The hospital site named in the first of these bills, which was read a first time on Thursday night, is a very healthy position, and generally considered well adapted for the purpose intended. At the present moment no other site with such advantages could be found. The encroachment on the waste called the Park is so trifling, and the advantages are so great of having an hospital in a quiet and healthy position, that the objections raised against the bill on this ground will have very little weight. The second reading of the Hagley Park Mill Bill was to have come off last night, and at the time of writing this we do not know its fate. Two or three members, have a very strong objection to the use of any part of the park for such a purpose as the one contemplated,—and it is probable that they will do their best to get the bill shelved. But we do hope that no such sentimental objection will again postpone a useful project. It may be remembered that when Mr. FitzGerald was Superintendent he sent down a bill to give a lease of a mill site on Hagley Park, and that his bill was thrown out by the Council without consideration, almost without reason given. At that time great want of mill power was felt in the chief agricultural district.. Although the number of mills has since increased the demand has become greater. This year, although some of the farmers are unable to sell their grain or to get it ground, we have been importing flour, to the great disgrace of so rich an agricultural country. Now, when it is important to encourage the growth of. every bushel of wheat that can be produced, it is to be' hoped that the Council will not lightly reject a measure calculated to benefit the agriculturist so largely. . Jf||,So far from the erection of tsi| proposed mill being an eyersore; provisions for planting and other improvements might be introduced to improve the look of the wilderness called by courtesy a park. For the length of time that the proposed mill will be standing, it will be perhaps the most ornamental object in the Park.' We refer our readers to the report of the debate on the first reading of this bill for an account of its main provisions, to which we are anxious to draw the atten-. tion of the public. ,; ■" -