SUSPEND JUDGMENT!

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 94, 12 July 1927, Page 15

SUSPEND JUDGMENT!

HOBSON BAY’S FUTURE

MR. L. P. LEARY’S PLEA

FURTHER CONSIDERATION URGED

r PHAT the chairman of the Auck- “*■ land Harbour Board, Mr. H. R. Mackenzie, or any of its members, would not permit themselves to become a conscious instrument for the destruction of the city’s beauties, is the contention of Mr. L. P. Leary in connection with the future of Hobson Bay.

It is Mr. Leary’s submission that the problem divides itself into two. “The first branch, with which it would seem the Government alone is concerned, is the question of the shunting yards that the Government proposes to make upon its reclamation in Hobson Bay,” he says. “It has an 18 chains strip running the whole width of the bay and it may be that provision for shunting yards could be made in another place. It is well known that in the big cities of the world where space is precious trains are marshalled many miles away from the railway station. This phase of the matter can be ventilated only by representations made to the Government.” SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS

The other portion of the problem was more easily handled, namely, the allocation of portion of the balance of the bay for a park and a portion for industrial purposes. The local authority which had this immediately in hand was the Harbour Board. At the very outset of the discussion it occurred to Mr. Leary that the muchcanvassed report was probably obtained purely for a special purpose, and that it took into account only special considerations.

“I suggest it will probably be found that the engineers who signed the report would be the first to state that in signing it they were putting forward an engineering project; and that if they were invited by the competent authority to consider the wider aspect that has been brought to the fore by the citizens, namely, the beauty of Auckland and the comfort and health of the residents, they could easily formulate a scheme which would satisfy everybody and remain inexpensive.” NOT COMMITTED So far as Mr. Leary had been able to ascertain, the members of the Harbour Board did not regard themselves committed to any scheme. The report was one step in their investigations. “Might I suggest, therefore, that judgment be suspended until the members have had further time to consider the matter?” he asks. “They are all 1 al citizens of Auckland or loyal members of the Auckland province, and tney will be anxious to do the best they can for the future of the city and the province.” It was inconceivable that if the issue were put fairly to any .one of them, and the chairman in particular, he would allow himself to become a conscious instrument for the destruction of the city’s beauties.