MONEY EBBING

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 199, 20 May 1931, Page 16

MONEY EBBING

Athletic Body’s Finance

CENTRE CONCERNED

Starting with a tentative announcement by the treasurer, Mr. D. Wilson, that the year's working would probably show a loss of £250, the executive of the Wellington Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, at its meeting last evening, stepped forthwith into a discussion of the centre's financial ebb tide. All were concerned at theway the centre was losing ground, some blaming tours of overseas athletes, and the opinion was expressed that next season the centre would have to tread more cautiously. In 1926-27 the centre ended the year with a balance of £Bl3, but it has been falling steadily, and a balance of £2OO is expected at. the end of the present year. After Mr. Wilson had made his announcement, the chairman,- Mr. A. C. Kitto, remarked that the centre would have to do something next year to conserve, its finances. Mr. J. O'Sullivan said it would have to push ahead in the future or it would have a bad effect on amateur sport, which was the last thing they wanted. Mr. Kitto said that the centre had more competitors now than ever it had had. Reverting to the centre’s dwindling reserves, Mr. "Wilson expressed the opinion that it was the tours of overseas athletes that were pulling the centre down. “Want to Hold Our Own.” This just came to what he had been saying for a long time, said Mr. Kitto. Under the present system the centre could not make a success of its participation in overseas tours. “We don't want to make money,” he said, “but we want to hold our own.” Mr. O'Sullivan commented on the fact that when he had taken over the secretaryship (in 1919) the centre had had a credit balance of 7/6; and they seemed to be going steadily back toward the same position. Mr. H. McCormick thought they could drop these overseas tours. They had been educating the public up to the point when they expected to see international athletes in action, and it would be a good thing if tours were abandoned for a while.

Mr. Wilson quoted figures showing how

the centre stood at the end of successive years. The peak had been reached in 1926-27, when they had a balance of £Bl3, and it had been declining ever since, until at the end of this season it would have dropped to £209.

It was time they let the council of

the N.Z.A.A.A. know the position. Mr. Kitto said. They had not only been “carrying the baby” but had been spending their own money to keep the thing going.

Mr. O'Sullivan said that if an overseas tour were mooted for next year the centre would have to put its foot down.

After some talk of clubs and their responsibilities in the staging of meetings. Mr. Kitto said again that the centre could nvt go on as it was going. “The trouble is that the barrier movement is spreading and someone has to help them, too.”

Profits -on Recent Meetings,

With reference to the recent Wellington meetings at which the visiting

American athletes competed, Mr. Wilson said that he was expecting the first of them to show a profit of £393 and the second a profit of £57. He would be giving the balance-sheet to the secretary of the association, Mr. L. A. Tracy, next week. One or two members were interested in the probable result of the meetings for the centre, which in effect rnn the meetings for the tour as a whole in the same way as other centres and clubs did. and Mr. Kitto remarked that he hoped the centre would make some profit on them, considering the loss on the year's operations. “T think the tour will be all right,” said Mr. McCormick when a question was asked about the outcome of the whole enterprise.