THE IMPERIAL TROOPS' RECEPTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11619, 5 April 1901, Page 4

THE IMPERIAL TROOPS' RECEPTION.

Very many of our citizens will bo surprised and indignant at; the decision of the City Council to charge the Imperial Troops Reception Committee £17 for the use of the Domain • grounds. It is exceedingly doubtful if the charge would . hold good at; law, seeing that no entrance fee was taken at the gates, and the public simply made use of a public place without let or hindrance. Butpassing over the legal question, our civic government has decided to do ah astonishingly petty thing. Th«S Reception Committee took upon its | shoulders the burden of what) wa3 essentially a public function. If feo part of the Domain used as a cricket I ground was occupied for that unction- it ; was solely for the pleasure i and gratification of the whole community. The committee had Mae place cleaned up and did; its ijeSt to restore the ground to the; state in which it was found. • Moreover, ; the committee- voted £25 to the Band Fund, in generous recognition •of the desirability of placing that public enterprise upon a satisfactory footing. ] Now, apparently for- no reason excepting that the patriotism of ; private citizens has left the Committee with a surplus, the Cricket Ground Committee demands its pound of flesh—or,' to speak % more literally, its quarter of a- pound of; gold— the City Council supports" this peculiar demand. '/We can well understand that tne Cricket Ground Committee ;, desires . to " make the cricket ground "a credit ;to ■ the city," but ;we should have" thought that methods creditable to the city would have been relied upon. The whole episode is regrettable. The stand taken by the Council is altogether undignified. ' "But the most lamentable feature is the slap ■in th* face given to a public-spirited organisation, which was entitled to the assistance and countenance of our local authorities, seeing that its on'y I purpose was to perform: a public service and to maintain our civic reputation.