DIFFICULT TIMES

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 56, 4 September 1934, Page 10

DIFFICULT TIMES

FINANCING CRICKET

ASSISTANCE TO CLUBS

Pointing out that in the coming cricket season, with only one representative match to be played here in the ordinary course of events, and a consequent diminution in income, the Wellington Cricket Association may not find it possible to assist clubs in making a rebate on ground fees, Mr. J. Reid placed a suggestion before the j annual meeting of the Kilbirnie Cricket Club that the association's income should be improved by the arranging of an extra match with Canterbury or Auckland. "But in any case," he stated, "why should not the association, if assistance is not possible otherwise, make use of the reserves to help the players. More exalted financiers than the' association have, during the bad times of the last few years, not hesitated to make use of the reserves built up when things were better." No doubt the committee's idea, he said, was to build up the accumulated ■funds to such an extent that Ihey would yield a considerable addition to the association's income, and so enable it. to mnko things easier for the players. "That might have been possible by now had things been better," he added, "but, as they are, it looks as though it will be a long time before any substantial accretion to the funds can bo looked for. In Iho meantime the players, for whom after all the association holds its funds in trnst, are finding the position increasingly difficult, and many of them are either giving up the game or going where it is not so expensive." He suggested, therefore, that the club's delegates should at the annual meeting of the association move a recommendation to the committee that a rebate of at least 10 per cent, be given this year, even if it involved hypothecating the association's securities. The carrying into effect of such a recommendation would, he considered, result in the giving of relief when and where it was most needed instead of postponing it until things were better and when it was perhaps not so necessary. A motion by Mr. Keid on the lines of his suggestion was seconded by Mr. W. J. B. Christophcrsen, who, as treasurer of the association, pointed out that a sum of £250 was earmarked for a scoreboard and could not be touched. However, he thought that the members of the association would be favourably inclined towards giving assistance in the direction indicated. At the same time they always had to guard against the danger of losing a substantial sum in lean seasons.

The motion was carried