THE BASIN RESERVE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 134, 3 December 1935, Page 7

THE BASIN RESERVE

USE POll ATHLETICS

DEPUTATION'S REQUEST

"PUSHED INTO BACKGROUND"

A deputation from the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association and the Wellington Centre of that body waited upon the City Council reserves committee yesterday afternoon to protest against the arrangements made for their use of the Basin Reserve.

In putting the case of the athletes before the committee, Mr. R. W. McVilly, chairman of the N.Z.A.A.A., said he would ask members of the committee to recall the time when it was the practice of the Athletic Association to meet the Cricket Association at the beginning of the season and mutually arrange the dates on which the Basin was to be used subject to the consent of the reserves committee. in recent years the Athletic Association had been pushed into the background and as an important sports body bent on keeping youth in a healthy frame of mind and in robust health, it seemed to him that "the association should get more use of the reserve than they were getting, and he asked for more consideration by the reserves committee. They used, under the arrangement referred to, to get four Saturdays in the year; now the committee had given two Saturdays to the inter-house association. It was maintained that the application for those days should have gone through the Wellington Centre of the W.A.A.A., so that the reserves committee should have only one body to deal with.

This season, continued Mr. McVilly, it was proposed to bring a team of athletes from Australia, but the Wellington Centre had not been, able to make definite arrangements, as they did not know where they were in regard to the Basin Reserve. It was true that at one time they had gone to Athletic Park, but at the City Council's request they had come back, and now it seemed as though the committee wished to put them out of the field altogether. ; He asked that they should go back to the : old method of allowing the Cricket Association and the W.A.A.A. to arrange dates in conjunction with the reserves committee. At present the W.A.A.A. was being placed in such a position that it might have to cease operations. Mr. J. W. Heenan said that the whole question centred on the number of days to be allowed them. Four days, he added, might C be the saving of amateur athletics;in Wellington. NO BOYS' RACES? "There is also an embargo on boys' races." said Mr. Heenan. "Most of our prominent athletes are bred out of those days, and they are being dobarred from running there because it is said that they damage the^ ground." Children's races were the only means of making good athletes out of children attending primary schools, and those older ones who do not go on to the, secondary schools. Four Saturday afternoons was> not an outrageous demand. Mr. A. C. Kitto, president of the Wellington Amateur Athletic Association recalled that they had been promised the new Hataitai ground for this season for training. It was to have been ready in January; now it was not to be made available this season. With only two Saturdays and no facilities for training and no evening meetings they might as well cease altogether. There were some 300 to 400 athletes who were being driven into other avenues of sport as the centre had no ground to give them. He suggested a conference of the cricket association, the Wellington Amateur Athletic Association, and other sports' bodies and the reserves committee. ■ When they learned that there were to be no Monday evening meetings and no children's races it came like a bombshell, and no one knew whence.it came. ' Councillor* W. Duncan said the reserves committee did not want to have it said that' it: prevented children's races.. What happened was that the children weire allowed to walk all over the ground and had damaged the wickets, simply because they were not controlled. . The damage alleged to be done to the practice wickets, by spiked shoes was ridiciiled by Mr. Heenan during the discussion. ; THE'COUNCIL'S POLICY. Replying to the deputation, the chairman, Councillor J. Burns, said the policy of the 'council was to help them all to the best of its ability. At the same time it had been represented that the ground was . over-used, and serious reports as to its condition had been made to the director of parks, so serious that the closing of the Basin Reserve for one season had been suggested. The question was how to get over it. One proposal was to lessen its use. It had been said that more damage, had been done by athletes than cricketers, and that was the reason why their activities had been curtailed. The one body not affiliated (to which reference had been made) had a big following, and the committee felt in.duty bound to give them a day. The committee was just as. keen on giving the , Wellington Amateur Athletic Association' four days if it could possibly be done, but the cricket association had the English and Plunket Shield matches coming on, and the ground had to be nursed. The committee had no intention of cutting out night training, and was prepared to reconsider the position if that were possible., He hoped the Wellington Amateur Athletic Association would use its influence to get the outside bodies to affiliate. They would go into the .matter, and if they could meet the wishes of the deputation they would do so.