THAT PEOPLE'S PARK. Is the Mayor Asleep?

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 197, 9 April 1904, Page 6

THAT PEOPLE'S PARK. Is the Mayor Asleep?

NOW that the season for winter athletics has set in, it is up to somebody to rouse the Mayor and Corporation from their slumbers. Last session a bill was passed through Parliament, at the instance of the Wellington City Council, to enable it to take advantage of the free-gift offer of forty-eight and a-half acres of level land at Miramar for the purposes of a people's park and recreation ground. All that was required from the Corporation in return was the undertaking to extend the electric trams to the park withm three years. Therefore, the Council sought and obtained legislative authority to submit the offer to the ratepayers for their determination. • • * What has been done since ? Absolutely nothing On the recommendation of its Finance Committee, the City Council, on the 17th December last, decided : "That the proposals for extension of electric tramways to Miramar be ,placed before the ratepayers at as early a date as possible." It devolved upon the Mayor, as the head of the executive, to give effect to that decision Perhaps, he has been fast asleep ever since, or, if awake, his mind may have been wholly occupied with ruminations whether to let go the mayoral robe, with its ermine fur, the beautiful cocked hat, the lovely chain of office, and the 400 sovereigns, or hang on to them for the fifth term. • * • Be all that as it may, not a single move has been made to carry out the instruction issued by the Council four months ago. Now, the citizens have a right to know what it means. Is the history of "Lost Miramar" to be repeated on a diminished scale ? Last year the representatives of the athletic bodies of Wellington waited upon the City Council, and urged them, in the interests of the people, to acquire the park which was offered at Miramar. It was then pointed out very forcibly that seven hundred young men assembled weekly to play Bugby football alone, and that the public schools contributed between two and three hundred boy players as well. And yet, the only possible ground to accommodate the rising manhood of the city in merely one of the available outdoor g-ajnes is the absurdly limited area of Newtown Park. No wonder the city fathers bestirred themselves to get a bill through Parliament with a view of immediately taking the opinion of the ratepayers.

Are there any secret agencies at w ork to defeat that purpose ? The public have a right to know. Not the slightest attempt is being made to procure a playground and park for the wants of a city — the capital of the colony— which is fast developing into the proportions of a metropolis. Even Kelburne Park lies neglected, an object lesson of the apathy of the Corporation. If this Miramar offer is withdrawn through municipal sloth and inaction — as it may be any day — it seems rather unlikely that so easy a chance of securing a convenient and advantageous site for a park and recreation ground will soon recur • • * In the nature of things, the trams must ultimately run to Miramar — park or no park. By carrying them there withm three years the Corporation obtains for the people fortyoig;ht and a half acres of level land, which, at the moderate computation of £400 an acre, is worth close on £20,000. As a matter of fact, sections adjoining the proposed park have been sold at the rate of £800 an acre, and nearly ninety acres of the flat on the other side of the main Miramar road were sold eighteen months ago at an average rate of more than £500 an acre. * * * All that, however, is beside the question. The point is when does the Mayor intend to carry out the direction of the City Council to place the Miramar Park proposals before the ratepayers "at as early a date as possible" ? The entire youth of the city are deeply interested in this question. So is everybody who wishes the city to be enriched with a park whither the public may resort fcr quiet recreation or for participation m those outdoor exercises without which a city-bred population must deteriorate in morale and physical stamina Four months have slipped away without a move being made. Let the people be allowed to vote without further delay