THE PORTOBELLO BOWLING GREEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22716, 31 October 1935, Page 12

THE PORTOBELLO BOWLING GREEN

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I would like to know how the Portobello bowling green goeg under the name of the Returned Soldiers' green. The committee is composed of a publican, a blacksmith, a public servant, a baker, a bus driver, and a ferryman. Two of them are Imperial men and one a New Zealand soldier. They have had cheap labour with returned men at 10s per day and, not satisfied with that, they applied to the Minister of Employment for more cheap labour and got it. They said it was going to be a good thing for the district. Quite so, but what about .the money the bus company and the publican will make when the green is finished —all out of the poor old relief workers? If this bowling green is going to be a good thing for the district, why did not the publican give the ground as a gift instead of leasing it to the committee? Now he can say he has at his back door a bowling green which has made his property more valuable through the Minister of Employment. When they had the deputation with Mr Smith, Minister of Employment, all they could say about the relief workers was that they were wasting their time chipping grass off the side of the roads. They did not tell Mr Smith all the improvements they had made in Portobello. Even some of the fanners in Wickcliffe Bay will tell you that the road from Weir's to the Maori line has not been in a better condition for years. All of the work has been clone by relief labour, which is more important than bowling greens for private people.—l am. etc.. Hands Off the Bowling Green. Wickliffe Bay, October 26. [Though the Portobello bowling green may be known as the returned soldiers' green, membership of the club which will use the green is open to the public. The committee of the club comprises seven persons, of whom four ai-e ex-servicemen. The relief labour employed in the construction of the green is provided by seven persons, of whom four were sol-

diers, the other three being men with large families, and the Returned Soldiers' Association has contributed a substantial sum towards the payment for the work done by those relief workers in whom it is specially interested. The green is leased to the club at a peppercorn rental for a' period,. 0f.'30 years. We have eliminated from the above letter a passage which involved a personal attack on a private individual.—Ed. O.D.T.]