QUEEN'S GARDENS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27450, 25 July 1950, Page 6

QUEEN'S GARDENS

Open-air Meetings QUESTION TO BE REVIEWED The question of prohibiting openair meetings at the Queen’s Gardens, apart from memorial services and other religious services at the option of the council, will be reviewed by the General Committee as a result of a discussion by the City Council last night. The committee recommended in a report to the council that open-air meetings should be confined to the Oval, Market Reserve. Bathgate Pant, the Museum Reserve, and tne Gardens Ground. Cr E. J. Anderson said that he supported the view that the Queen’s Gardens should be reserved for special purposes, but he asked what the position would be if royalty visited Dunedin and a service were desirable in the summer. The council would be hoist with its own petard if it banned everything but religious services. “ They create free men in the gardens of cities overseas,” Cr Anderson added, with jocular reference to Sir Donald’s investiture in Edinburgh. He suggested that it could be made known that the Queen’s Gardens were to be reserved almost without exception for services of a religious or memorial nature, but the council would have discretionary powers. Cr Smith promised that the committee would discuss the matter again. Others present at the meeting were the Mayor, Sir Donald Cameron, and Crs Wright, Barr, N. D. Anderson, Barnes. Sidey, Taverner, Armitage and Ireland.