TENNIS AT DAY'S BAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 61, 9 September 1937, Page 8

TENNIS AT DAY'S BAY

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—lt is now a year since attention was drawn by the "Evening Post" to the bad state into which the hard courts at Day's Bay have been allowed to fall through the .neglect of the City Council. "When the matter was taken .up at a meeting of the council, and it was admitted that the courts were in need of attention, some of us who have the idea that tennis is a game of skill, and not one of hazards and unpredictable angles of incidence, had hopes that something would be done. Nothing was done, and there are no indications that anything will be done this year either. There are other courts open to us, but there are no other municipal courts, nor are there any that offer just that attractive combination of tennis and sea bathing. These courts return to the City Council practically the whole of the revenue obtainable from this seaside park. The courts were laid down probably ten years ago, and though, they were never regarded by players as of superquality, they gave good service and a, great deal of pleasure to many thousands of Wellington people. The fees collected must by now have amounted to a very large sum, but little has been returned for their upkeep, and in the last two or three years, when deterioration has been progressively rapid, nothing appears to have been done beyond the essentials of keeping the lines playably visible. Notwithstanding the bad condition of the courts last summer they were still quite well patronised, which is proof, not that the surface was good enough, but that the demand was so keen that players would put up even with the shocking condition of these courts. Since last summer they" have gone further back, and if the council proposes to continue its charges for their use then something better should be given for the fees collected. —I am, etc., l FIRST FERRY OVER. [From inquiries by "The Post"-it is understood that the top-dressing of the Day's Bay courts for play during the coming summer is under consideration. —Ed.] ■ ' . '