President seeks to rescind Amberley decision

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 24

President seeks to rescind Amberley decision

A decision taken at a spe-| cial general meeting of members of the Amberley I Racing Club in 1974 to re-1 tain one-third of the proceeds from the sale of the racecourse property in trust for the promotion of sport in the district may be rescinded. A notice of motion to that end will be moved by the president, Mr A. J. Blakely, at the annual general meeting of members of the Amberley Racing Club next Monday. If Mr Blakely’s motion is| carried the president will move that the sum of $28,300, one-third of the proceeds of the sale of the Amberley racecourse property, be loaned to the Ashley County Council for a term of 15 years, the interest to be spent on improvements to the development of the Amberley Domain.

Mr Blakely’s motion provides that the Ashley County Council be required to give first preference in the investment of the capital to an advance on mortgage security to the owners of the Rangiora racecourse. Mr Blakely feels that the club will be “in some turmoil and conflict with some members” until the matters are resolved.

In his annual report Mr Blakely said that he and Mr D. S. Thomas had had discussions with th: New Zealand Racing Authority on the subject.

I The authority had indicated that it did not have any jurisdiction over the disposal i of the club’s assets. Howlever, it expressed the opin- ! ion that in view of the historical background in this 1 case there appeared to be J; some justification for the I club to consider it had an

obligation to the district it served to direct some of the profit on the sale of the racecourse to sporting and recreational purposes. Mr Blakely says the authority also felt that only income from the capital set aside should be used for activities outside racing and that the capital should remain the property of the racing club. “Some members of the racing club may not be aware that the Amberley racecourse was a public domain until 1953 when it was sold by the Crown to the racing club for approximately one-third of its valuation,” Mr Blakely says in his report. If members carried the notices of motion to be moved at the annual meeting the club would be making moneys available to be spent on the Amberley Domain as

some compensation for the selling of the Amberley Racecourse at a minimal figure to the Amberley Racing Club by the Crown. “By doing so I believe we are fulfilling a moral obligation to the people of the district,” Mr Blakely says in his report.. Mr Blakely reports a raceday profit of $2651, and a profit of $lB4B on the year’s operations, that including $2544 in interest on the mortgage at the Amberley racecourse. If the interest on mortgage had been set aside for other purposes the club would have had a loss of $696 for the year. In the club’s first full year at Rangiora its share of the upkeep of the Rangiora course had been $4385.