The Times FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1945. R.S.A. Sports Centre

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 277, 23 November 1945, Page 4

The Times FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1945. R.S.A. Sports Centre

The Palmerston North Returned Services Association have made a proposal to the City Council for administrative control of one of the city’s partially developed reserves for the purpose of establishing a sports centre and pavilion as a memorial to those tvho have given their lives in World War 11. There is much to appeal in the idealism of this project but at the same time certain aspects of it require to be critically considered.

There is no question but that the citizens of this generation would subscribe to a memorial as generously as did their forebears of 1919. Then were thousands of pounds raised from which was provided the war memorial statue that adorns the centre of the Square—one that comes to notable prominence each Anzac Day when wreaths are laid upon its base.

There lias been criticism of that form of memorial based on the consideration that it serves no utilitarian purpose. Such criticism has to be given some deference, but at the same time a memorial must not of necessity be useful in the strictly material sense to possess a value to the community. AVould any park or say vast hospital so recall the memory of Britain’s greatest naval hero as does Nelson’s monument in Trafalgar Square? This is not to make out a case either for or against the project now advanced by the R.S.A. Maybe the time has arrived and the circumstances are of such a nature that a practical war memorial should be created.

Allowing that to be, consideration must be given to the actual suggestion for a recreation centre for ex-servicemen. A difficulty facing any such centre is that of location. Palmerston North covers a quite considerable area of roughly three miles in length by three miles in width. It has been found necessary to have recreation centres in various quarters of the city. Bowlers or tennis players, for example, desire to take their sport at some point reasonably handy to their place of residence. Will this not be the ease for returned servicemen generally?

Then there is such a wide variety of sports to be catered for — golf, tennis, bowls, football, hockey, athletics and so forth. It is scarcely feasible to see all these being carried aut on any area of partially developed reserve within the city. The leader of the R.S.A. deputation to the Council said that an increasingly large number of returned servicemen had felt the need “for a recreation centre for the expansion of the Association’s sporting activities.” They did not have in mind a private park for returned soldiers but one which would also be a playground for children and a beauty spot for all. Perhaps it would be possible to create a centre of this nature that would, through the long years ahead, confer a particular service to R.S.A. membership. Before either commending or condemning the proposal for a sports centre, the public would be desirous of having a more explicit account of just what was in the mind of its sponsors. However, any suggestion that might be made should well bear in mind the aspect of location versus the residential spread of prospective membership. Most certainly it will be the wish of all to have some worthy memorial to those who had given their lives in AVorld War 11. With equal certainty it can be safely forecast that the people of Palmerston North will generously contribute to such a cause.