Sport subsidy may help students

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33382, 14 November 1973, Page 18

Sport subsidy may help students

(By our education reporter)

Plans for a slm physical recreation centre for the University of Canterbury at Ham could receive a boost as a result of the new Government scheme of financial assistance for sport and recreation.

The scheme announced by the Minister of Recreation and Sport (Mr Walding) is in two parts, s2m being made available to local bodies and slm to national groups this financial year. To become eligible for Government assistance under the new scheme the university would have to gain the co-operation of the Waimairi County Council, which would apply for the subsidy. If all councils in Christchurch combined their applications for subsidy assistance, more than $50,000 could be made available' within a short time for the centre. The future of the centre has been clouded until re-

cently, when the University of Canterbury Students’ Association submitted a proposal to raise a loan of $BO,OOO to cover the cost of all preparatory planning. USE BY 1976 I The centre, which students [wish to have in use by 1976, I will consist of a gymnasium land changing rooms (11,000 ; sq. ft), a sports hall and foyer (13,000 sq. ft), and an administration block (5000 sq. ft). The sports hall alone will cost more than $490,000. In line with the policy announced by Mr Walding, the students are willing to make the new facilities available for community use, especially if the community has made a substantial contribution to finance the new project. The move of the University iof Canterbury to Ham is set I for the beginning of 1975, and (by this time a temporary (gymnasium will be built near [the university sports field near the Ham primary school. FUND LOW Promises of Government assistance this year and next year would obviate the need for a temporary gymnasium, and would allow the Students’ Association to begin planning for direct grants from their building fund, which is now almost depleted. More than $350,000 from it has been committed to extensions to the new Students’ Union. If Government assistance for the centre were promised, the fund could increase by $BO,OOO a year. Flrtl win. — The Derrick Robins’s XI gained the first three-day match victory of Its South African tour when It beat Transvaal, at Johannesburg, by eight wickets: Scores: Transvaal 217/9 deci, and 199 (P. de Vaal 50; J. Snow 3/50), Robins’s XI 306/6 deci, and 116/2 (M. Smith 38, Younis Ahmed 34 not out, D. B Close 31 not out).