SUNDAY GAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1922, Page 11

SUNDAY GAMES.

LOCAL BODIES' POWERS. DEFINED BY STATUTE. Some time ago the Taihape Borough Council was asiicd by the ministers of the Church of l'Jngiand, l"reauytejriaJk Uhurch, and' Methodist Church to stop tlie playing of cricket on Sundays on the Oval Domain, and the council t.naniniousJy derided not to any action. At the next meeting of tlie council, a deputation consisting of tlie three ministeis waited on the council and asked it to reconsider its decision, and the council tlit'ii deckicd to ta-KC a referendum on the question. At the last meeting at tiiu council, however, the borougn solicitors advised tnut the taking of a referendum would constitute nothing more than an expression of puunc. opinion, and would not be binding on the council. There was no authority under the Act empowering the council to take a referendum on such a subject, and the Mayor expressed the opinion tnat the council woi.id not be justified in .-pending the ratepayers' money in taking sucn a referendum. On the question as to whether the council had iaaiy pone, to stop the p.aying of cricket or other gauges on ihe Oval Domain on Sundays, the borough solicitors advised that one section of the Act provided that no bylaw snail be valid, a breach whereof constituted only a breach Of some moral or leiigiou.s ruie, and quoted in support of tne opinion the decision of the i'uu Court in tne of Doyle v. Whitehead, jii which it was sought to prevent the p;aying of goif on Sundays on a reserve vested by Oider-iu-Council in? the Wellington City Council, which -lad a bylaw prohibiting the playing uf goif on the reserve on .Sundays. The Full C'ouTt decided that the by-.aw was inva.id on the ground that it was contrary to tlie provisions of the Act, a.s the piaying of golf constituted a breach ouiy of a religious or moral rule. It was also pointed out that all pub.ic domains are under the control of the (JovernorOeneral, who has power to reiegate such control to a body of not more tiian nine persons, but where the control of a domain or reserve is thus relegated to a local authority which maker, by-laws under the powers conferred uy section 38 of the Act, by-laws nguiating the use of domains must Be made in the manner in which its own by-laws are made—that is in the present case under the powers conferred by the Municipal Corpoiations Act. which contains tne section quoted, and in respect to whieii the decision of the Full C'-ou'rt was given in the case of Coyie v. Whitehead. The .Mayor move J, and Cγ. Lenihan seconded, that the decision to take a referendum on the question of Sunday "unies be postponed sine die, and this was carried with oniy one dissentient. The previous decision of the council not to take any action to prevent Sundaygames therefore stands.