SHOWGROUNDS ACQUISITION PROPOSAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9166, 14 August 1908, Page 4

SHOWGROUNDS ACQUISITION PROPOSAL.

Thfe table published in another column of this issue, showing the public reserves possessed by various towns and cities in the North Island, is instructive, as it shows that whilst we are given to thinking that in our fine public Park we are possessed of ample "fresh air" apace, many towns in the Island, of far less pretensions than Masterfcon, boast considerably larger public parks, domains, town belts, etc. Comparisons are in cases odious, but it is quite legitimate, perhaps, to draw attention to the fact that Palmerston North, for example, with a population of about double that of Masterton Borough, has apDroximately eight times the area of recreative reserves that Masterton possesses. Some towns —Gisborne and Marton in particular— compare unfavourably with Masterton, but the great majority show in a better light. Wellington city has no less than over 1,000 acres of its very valuable land devoted to public health preservation—which is primarily the object of the reservation of domains. With the ever extending residential area, Masterton ratepayers will do well to study the question very seriously of whether they should or should not provide, not only for the present and the immediate future, but also for posterity in the matter under review. Financial considerations will surely not weigh very heavily when the small amount of the rate to be struck is given even its most weighty effect, especially when there is a prospect of it being' not only considerably lessened, but later on, perhaps, not called up at ! all. I