RANGIORA DOMAIN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXIII, Issue 7561, 28 May 1885, Page 5

RANGIORA DOMAIN.

TO THE BDITOE. Sib, —The importance of the subject on which I write to you shall be my excuse for troubling you—important not only to the people of this place, but to the whole community, as it involves a great principle. The fact is, a great wrong is sought to be perpetrated m Eangiora—that is, the taking away from the people their property, the Public Domain, and handing it over to the Race Committee, or rather an embryo club, to be used by them, and' under their control and management, to do whatever they Jike with. When you consider that these domains have been given for the use of the people—public gardens, in fact, you may call them—and, besides, that many members of the Domain Board are prominent members of the Race Committee, and are in favour of the transference of control, it looks something like a betrayal of trust. Again, it is contemplated to hold a" tradesmen's" race meeting here, and, if the control of the Domain passed to. the Club, the people would virtually be shut out from what is their own. A public meeting has been called to express its views on this matter. It is a very open-handed, if not audacious, move, calculated to dust people's eyes; but the movement leaked out. The said Committee, or Club, already has the right of charging admission to the Domain on four days yearly. What more can this Race Committee require? Already they have taken advantage, for, Here stands a shed to fend the show*™ An' screen our country gentry. . What would the people of London say to closing Hyde Park; Dublin, Phoenix Park; or those of Christchurch, to closing Hagley Park ? There might be a claim of prescriptive right in those places; but here, none. People of Eangiora, the Domain is yours and your children's, and stick to it.—l am, &c'., PAIR PLAT.