The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1899. PUBLIC RIGHTS IN RECREATION RESERVES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 28, 3 February 1899, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1899. PUBLIC RIGHTS IN RECREATION RESERVES.

F«r tie eauso that lacks asssxtenee, Far the mons tkat seeds resistance, For the fatira ia tho distaste, And th« gted that ye can i«.

We have no doubt that the public will be very much comforted, and we trust that the Grey Memorial Committee will be duly and humbly grateful, when they learn that the Executive of: the Cricket Association have no objection to the citizens using- the slopes of the cricket enclosure and thevpavilion for the purpose of holding a Gre3' Memorial meeting. This was formally intimated at a conference with the Ground Committee of the City Council last night, and was thereupon dutifully embodied in a resolution adopted by that body for transmission to the Memorial Committee. It detracts a little, perhaps, from this lordly concession that it had previously been made perfectly clear to them that neither the Cricket Association nor the. City Council could prevent the public from assembling on the ground for any lawful purpose if they cliosf*,Aind as the cost of the pavilion was defrayed chiefly out of city funds, and has gone 1o swell the volume of the city overdraft, hypercritical persons may peivhnps be inclined to say 'thank you for nothing.' The deputation which interviewed the Ground Committee were scrupulously careful to assert their rights over the ground and to talk of it as if the laud were their private property. One member after another enunciated the doctrine that it was the duty of the Grey Committee to advance reasons to the Executive of the Cricket Association why the latter should forego the exclusive use of the ground for a single afternoon for the purposes of this demonstration. We have carefully examined the 'Auckland Domain Vesting Act, 1.89.V but have failed to discover any provision vesting this ground in the Association; on the contrary, we find that this is 'an Act to provide that the lands now held for the purposes of the Public Domain of Auckland shall be vested in the Mayor, Councillors, and citizens of the city of Auckland.' Why, then, the Grey Memorial Committee or any other section of the citizens who are the legal owners of the land should explain to the Cricket Association Executive their reasons for wishing to use the reserve may be perfectly clear to the Association but it will require a good deal of elucidation to satisfy the mind of the average citizen. Nothing seems clearer to us than that the action of the Ground ] Committee of the City Council In re- | ferring to the Cricket Association an } application made by a number of citi- ! Zens for the use of a recreation reserve' in vyjiieh every citizen of Auckland has an inalienable right was a most improper proceeding': and, as members of that Committee still seem to be under the impression ' that They can only ■ act subject to the dictation or with the concurrence of the Cricket Association, it is high time for the Council, which is the legal custodian of the ground on behalf of the. citizens, to step in and resume direct responsibility for its management. ( Although not bound by any obligation legal or moral to consult the Cricket Association, the Grey Memorial Committee, as will be seen

from the correspondence published i elsewhere, dfd approach the cricketi ers in tlie most courteous way. The deputation last night asserted that no reasons for asking the use of the ground had been advanced. Well the sufficiency of the reasons may be a matter of opinion, bur that there were reasons given, and these of a cogent character, the letter of Messrs .Jennings and Tole which we publish elsewhere to-day will bear testimony. We invite the public to judge between the reasons advanced in that letter and the trunrjjery excuses-put. forward in the reply from the secretary to (lie Association. The fact that the use

of the ground was asked for no private advantage, hut in order to do honour to the memory of the public benefactor to whom the; cricketers themselves in common with other citizens owed the dedication to public purposes of this reserve would, one might well have supposed, been .sufficient to satisfy men who placed

public duty and public gratitude before the personal gratification of indulgence in cricket. But the (irey Com?nittee went further than this— they solicited it personal interview for the purpose of discussing' the matter, and if this meeting1 had taken place arrangements could easily have been made for carrying out the demonstration without interfering with any important cricket match, but the Association considered that proposal as quite Unworthy of eo;i;;lderation. We understand that one member of the Association did suggest that the cricketers should meet the Grey Committee, but bis proposal received very little support. Apparently the Association consider that their payments for wicket pitches, amounting- last

year altogether to £:!0f), or about 0/?,\ pci1 head per annum for the 450 cricvketei'S who are snid to play on the ground every Saturday afternoon—a sum considerably less than the cost of keeping- the ground in order—give

them proprietary rights over the land. This assumption must be effectually dispelled, and if the Council, by taking proper measures to protect the rights of citizens, fail to dissipate that impression, then an appeal to Parliament should be organised. Of course, we do not identify cricketers as a body with the ill-advised action of the Executive of the Association. We believe that the cricketers will strongly disapprove of: being placed in the unenviable light of conniving at a seeming act of disrespect to the memory of Sir George Grey; but the fact that privileges over common lands, conceded in the first instance as a matter of courtesy or expediency, are always dangerous has received another exemplification from the present

incident

The permission which the Ground Committee of the Council have given to the Grey Committee to use slopes and pavilion has come at last with an ill grace, but we question whether the Committee can deter anyone who chooses from going on to the flat. Section 1 of the 'Auckland Domain Vesting Act, 1893,' ' undoubtedly confers that power, but it also provides that all by-laws and regulations for the management, of the Cricket Ground shall be publicly notified by advertisement and be 'posted on some conspicuous place in the Cricket Ground so that it may be easily read.' No regulation or by-law restraining persons from going on the flat has been so posted on the Cricket. Ground and people may exercise their own discretion about going there.