BLOT ON AUCKLAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 453, 7 September 1928, Page 12

BLOT ON AUCKLAND

DESPOILING OF HOBSON BAY

MR. J. A. LEE MAKES PROTEST

(THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Thursday. That the Marine Department should consult the city council affected before sanctioning large reclamations that may despoil a beautiful suburban foreshore was the substance of a protest made by Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East) to-day against the reclamation of Hobson Bay for the purposes of industrial expansion. "When harbour boards are doing reclamation work on the waterfronts of great cities their plans should be a matter not only for the Marine Department and the particular harbour board, but also for the city council affected,” said Mr. Lee. He said he had in mind the reclamation of Hobson Bay. Auckland, and the proposals to utilise it for railway yards and factory sites. The Government was at pains to establish town-plan-ning departments, yet the Marine De-

partment was permitted to sanction a scheme that would mar one of the most glorious residential areas in New Zealand. When the Marine Department was invited to interest itself in' such development works, he, thought the people on the foreshore affected should have some say, and there should be some method by which they might lie consulted in the determination of the purpose to which the reclaimed land would be given over. “The Marine Department,” said Mr. Lee, "should, concern itself with something more than mere commercial utility. In Auckland one of the world’s loveliest waterfronts has already been rendered hideous. If the Hobson Bay area were to be turned into a playing field it would add to the beauty of Remuera and be a civic asset, but if an industrial area grows up there we are going to despoil one of Auckland’s most precious assets.”