DEBT TO COUNCIL

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 272, 12 August 1932, Page 13

DEBT TO COUNCIL

Lawn Tennis Association COURTS AT MIRAMAR Mr. Semple’s Motion Lost When rhe Wellington City Council decided recently to allow the Wellington Lawn Tennis Association’s debt of £2300 incurred some years ago to stand over and to be reviewed a year hence, subject to rent being paid in the meantime, Councillor R. Semple was a dissentient and gave notice of motion of a resolution rescinding the motion. He put his case at last evening’s meeting, saying that no more "shilly-shallying” on the part of the association should be permitted. His resolution was lost by 11 votes to 4. He opened the discussion by saying that the reason why he had given notice of motion to rescind the previous motion of the council was because he was satisfied that the case put forward for the tennis people by the Mayor was not a strong one. He was satisfied that if the tennis people were allowed a year’s grace the council would find itself at the end of the year in precisely the same position. The tennis people, be said, seemed to have treated the demand for £2OOO as a joke. The council, be said, had originally voted the money illegally against the report of the engineer, and later, when they found that what they had done was Irregular and that they were personally liable, they took It from the general fund. The thing was bordering on a public scandal, Councillor Semple said. It was wrong altogether for a group of individuals to have so much “pull” over public men in this city to divert money from legal channels into illegal channels when there were districts that were crying out for money for public works. Blood from Stone. Ever since then the tennis people had evaded payment and defaulted. He was not- in favour of allowing them a single month more. The recommendation had been one of the sensible things the commission had done. The Mayor: Yes, but they didn’t tell ns how to get blood out of a stone. Councillor Semple was satisfied that the council was being imposed upon by a group of privileged people, and that it should not allow itself to be imposed upon any longer. They should not allow any more shilly-shallying. His resolution was to provide for the council to give effect to the original recommendation of the economy commission. The Mayor: What would you charge for tennis then? Councillor Sample: That’s not my business. The Mayor: That’s just the point. The resolution was seconded by Councillor R. McKeen, who also referred to the way in which the tennis people had been given the money. The council was now in a position to be defeated. It had been played with, and joked with, and no attempt’had been made to repay the money. The terms upon which they wanted to lease the courts were too much, he knew, for some private clubs. But if the council took them over, they could lease them on the same rates as others, and could probably make up their £2OOO. If the Council Took Over. ?'? • The Mayor said that there was an old saying that if one had not a strong case one attacked the other man’s case. It seemed to him that Councillor Semple’s speech in support of his resolution Jiad consisted largely of the vilification of the tennis people. Two things, the Mayor thought should be made clear. He had thought at first that the erection of the pavilion by the Tennis Association on its own ground was in bad faith. But he found later that it had been in the original plans—right from the start—and that it had been intended to put it there in view of the projected lay-out of the courts. The Mayor said that the council should consider what it would have to do if it did take the courts over. After all, he said, the charge was only 6d. The council could hardly do much better than that. Moreover, if the council took the courts over it would have to mend them and maintain them, just as the Tennis Association had to maintain them. In fact, the council would probably have to pay more because at present there was probably a good deal of voluntary work. The Mayor did not think it was a fair thing to take over the courts at present, or that it would pay the council to do so. He thought that they should stick to their previous resolution and give the tennis people another year. Councillor W. Duncan said that he thought that the association should, be given a month in which they could make an offer. Councillor T. Forsyth spoke of the history of the courts. He did not think it was a fair thing for the council to insist on its pound of flesh and cripple people who had spent so much of their time and money to helping the sport. It was one, moreover, which did not receive so much support from the council as others. Councillor Semple replied at some length. He had not been abusing the tennis people, he said. He had been abusing a bargain that the council should never have made. The motion for rescission was lost by 11 votes to 4.