Sports Ground Lack Seen

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30682, 23 February 1965, Page 1

Sports Ground Lack Seen

About 80,000 young persons and children in Christchurch had no place to play their sports on a Saturday, the campaign chairman of the Young Men’s Christian Association’s new building fund-raising committee (Mr E. A. Crothall) said yesterday.

The present-day sports facilities in Christchurch, he said, could cater for only 20,000 youngsters on a Saturday. Mr Crothall said that the copulation of Christchurch

today was more than 220,000. Of these, 103,000 ( 46.7 per cent) were under 25. “If these are to be committed to a mature set of values,” he said, “they need the moral guidance and the good, supervised accommodation the Y.M.C.A. can provide. Mr Crothall was speaking to a special luncheon meeting, chiefly of retail store executives, to discuss the promotion of a radio-tele-phone appeal day on March 17 to raise funds for the proposed new Y.M.C.A. building. The building, comprising a stadium, a hostel for 60 residents and other facilities, to be built in Rolleston avenue, between Cashel and Hereford

i streets, would cost about £280.000. I Mr Crothall said the amount i hoped for on the radio-tele-i I phone appeal day was £50,000. | He thought this was a j

realistic target when it was considered that Hamilton had raised about £70,000 in a night for a cobalt cancer treatment equipment, and Invercargill £37,000 for an old persons’ home. Mr Crothall said he thought it was necessary for the city to provide for the needs of' the young people of Christchurch. The present Y.M.C.A., he said, catered for about 1600 young persons a week. The new one would handle 4000 a week. All sorts of activities were carried out by the Y.M.C.A

outside the main central facilities. The new building would provide a core from which it could be transplanted.

The Y.M.C.A., he said, catered for males from the age of six to their midtwenties. It also catered for mixed-groups. Major stores and services in Christchurch are expected to run window displays promoting the Y.M.C.A. building project, before the radiotelephone appeal day. Mr Crothall said the Y.M.C.A. had not held a major appeal for funds for a building project in Christchurch for 50 years.

“We are confident we can reach to the homes of this city to encourage the people Ito give generously,” he said.