CITY’S SPORTS GROUNDS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 171, 19 April 1928, Page 3

CITY’S SPORTS GROUNDS

WHAT THEY PRODUCE IN REVENUE RECORD FOR TE ARO BATHS Probably of all the city-owned sports grounds m Wellington the Municipal golf links at Berhnnipore produces the most revenue in proportion to the expenditure. In view of this, it is considered that the city should do more 'han it is doing in the way of providing additional links. There are fair sites for sporting links on the slopes of Alt. Victoria (Kilbirnie side), and in other :>atts of the Town Helt, and at Nairn Park (Ngaio) there are possible ninebole courses for the many ivho would like to play, but who find it difficult and perhaps inconvenient to venture far cut into the country for their golf. The return from the Bcrhampore links for the year ended March 31 was £933 10s. 10d—a return the like of which was never contemplated when the links was laid down. A feature of the municipal links is that the person who learns bis golf there leains in a good school, for no matter where he may go in New Zealand after he knows his game and his handicap, he will find no links so perverse in the difficulties to be contended with, and none to try the patience more. Whilst the municipal golf links provide neatlv £lOOO in fees, the lawn tenbis grounds at Day’s Bay onlv returned for last rear the stun of £549 16s. 6d., and that for a long and particularly fine summer, with tennis possible for three months without a break. As there .are wages to pay in connection with the nnkeep of the twelve grass courts, and .-fficers of the council have to attend 'o collect the fees at week-ends and holidays, there is not so much in the wav of profits in municipal tennis as might be imagined. Then the capital cost of laving down the courts has to be taken into account. The Basin Reserve pays its way. Ine revenue received from this ground in fees from cricket, football and sports meetings during the last financial year was £1899, an amount rather in excess of the usual return, but none too much, as there are the wages of the caretaker and his men, the cost of maintenance of the ground and its surroundings, and interest on the cost of the new pavilion to be paid. Still, taking everything into account, it was a good year for the Basin Reserve and the City Corporation. The revenue received from tne te Aro and the Thorndon baths £l2BO. Of that amount the Te Aro baths was responsible for £lo69—a record season. For the previous year the receipts at Te Aro were just under the four figures, so the extra fine weather experienced during the summer has meant the best part of £lOO in revenue to those baths. The Thorndon baths (fresh water), off Murphy Street, are not popular. If they were ever going to be a success with the public of Wellington North it should have been during the long hot summer just concluded, but the revenue from them only amounted to £2ll for the whole year, which means that these baths are run at a loss, when wages, upkeep, and interest on the loan are taken into consideration. It was foreseen by many that this would be the case. The old Thorndon salt water baths were never a success, and to provide any kind of baths in their place seemed to many to be a mistake. The return from the new fresh water baths seems to endorse that view. Many people resident in Thorndon do not now know of their existence; others have been once or twice and have not u liked the look of the water,” and so on. Now there is a rather ominous crack at the southern end of the bath which cannot be disregarded in view of the danger involved. The locker fees at Day’s Bay, Worser Bay, and Lyall Bay returned more actual cash (£286) than the Thorndon baths.