Games Not Opposed

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32385, 26 August 1970, Page 14

Games Not Opposed

The Christchurch Metropolitan Ratepayers’ Association was not opposed to the 1974 Commonwealth Games beng held in Christchurch, as long as the burden of their cost did not fall on the ratepayers, the association’s annual meeting agreed last evening.

The meeting supported comments from the chairman (Mr A. A. Mackintosh) that the association would do all in its power towards the success of the Games to ensure that inefficient management

did not harm the ratepayer’s pocket.

The meeting also agreed that a representative of the association should, if invited, join the Games organising committee. “It is a matter of if you can’t beat ’em, join 'em,” Mi Mackintosh said. “We have already loudly and clearly proclaimed that we want ‘the Games, but we don’t want the cost thrust upon the ratepayer.” He criticised the Mayor (Mr A. R. Guthrey) for declining offers of support from the Mayor of Auckland (Sir Dove-Meyer Robinson) and the Mayor of Wellington (Sir Francis Kitts). “Both these cities came forward voluntyily with offers of help, but

our little man down here said ‘no’,” Mr Mackintosh said. Referring to the association’s letter to Edinburgh, opposing the Games, Mr Mackintosh said that it had been the democratic right of the association to state its side of the story, and he questioned the rights of critics who had slanted it. He criticised the description of the association in a newspaper as “the grizzling ratepayers’ association, which has tried surreptitiously to wreck the city’s Games effort” Suggestions advanced at the meeting for financing the cost of the Games included the imposition of a citizens’ tax, sharing the cost among businesses and other centres, and a lottery.