DEVONPORT DOMAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 189, 31 October 1927, Page 12

DEVONPORT DOMAIN

AN OLD LAGOON ITS EARLY HISTORY Few of the visitors who turned out on Saturday to attend the opening of the cricket and tennis seasons on the fine Domain at Devonport know that the area was once a big lagoon much frequented by duck-hunters. The Maoris drained part of the lagoon out to Cheltenham Beach, and the Europeans, not placing the same value on an eel preserve, afterwards completed the work by draining it in the opposite direction. The Devonport Tennis Club was formed in 1880 by Mr. J. B. Russell, and though the club got grounds allotted easily enough by the then local governing authority later it had to fight for its land. In 1886 the club membership having fallen to 20 the road board very generously gave the tennis club grounds to a football club, and the latter, probably with some prescience, asked the board to pull down the fence separating the club grounds. The board members attended in person to carry out the work and were greatly surprised to find Mr. J. C. Macky, later Mayor of the borough and who went down in the Lusitania. Mr. Frank Mason and Mr. F. Whittaker busy planting trees along the fence line. Mr. Macky explained that lie had purchased the plants and finally overreached the board members by stating that he was prepared to build an asphalt court at his own expense. Thus the tennis club won the day. Football, bowls, tennis, cricket and croquet now all find a home where 50 years ago the wild duck made its nest and the Maori caught the tuna.