FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 71, 23 February 1937, Page 2

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY.

SPORTS CLUB’S POSITION

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT.

“The position is that the Terrace End Bowling, Croquet and Tennis Club, the only one in Terrace End, will have to go out of existence at the end of the financial year and the property will go to the Public Trustee unless the City Council will spend some of the ratepayers’ money for the club’s be.nefit,” said Mr J. W. Smith, president of the clnb, at a meeting of the committee of the Terrace End Progressive Association, last evening. The meeting was in receipt of a letter from the City Council advising that free use of the Coronation Hall for the association’s meetings could not be granted, and that prompted Mr Smith to say that at the end of the financial year the association would have to find some other place in which to meet than the club pavilion, where last evening’s gathering was held. The club had granted the association the free use of the room so far, but through the action of the City Council in providing assistance to other clubs the Terrace End Club now found itself unable to carry on for another year.

Proceeding, Mr Smith said that the council was assisting in the formation of a howling green in the Hokowhitu district at a cost of over £IOOO. The estimated cost to the ratepayers of the green was £475, and it was estimated that the pavilion would cost another £750. The Mayor had assured the former president of the Terrace End Club (Mr W. J. Pearce), Mr J. M. Gordon, and Mr J. J. O’Shea that the council was “tired of the municipal greens” and that there would be no action taken before the Terrace End Club was consulted, if a request was made for the formation of bowling greens in Hokowhitu. Now the council had undertaken expenditure at Hokowhitu totalling over £IOOO. The Manawatu Bowling Club was costing the cohncil £330 and the Takaro Club £320 a year in wages alone. The Terrace End Club had a mortgage liability of £825, and since 1904 had paid over £IOOO in interest, plus £BS off the principal. The club had applied to the Mortgagors’ Rehabilitation Commission for relief, but it had been refused. The position in a nutshell was that the Terrace End Bowling Club, the only one in Terrace End, would have to go out of existence at the end of the financial year, and the property would be taken over by the Public Trustee unless the City Council could spend some of the ratepayers’ money at Terrace End. The chairman (Mr F. J. Oakley) said that the Mortgage Commission had no power under the legislation to act in the case of a sports body, and he asked if the club members would not take up debentures. Mr F. C- Litchfield (a member of the. club) : We have tried that before. This year, said Mr Smith, the club had had about twenty new members. The subscription was £3, but the Hokowhitu club proposed to charge only £2 10s and the Terrace End club was going to show a decline in membership. The discussion as to the bowling club was not carried further, the meeting returning to consideration of the letter regarding the use of the Coronation Hall.