OTAGO CYCLING CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 2424, 30 August 1900, Page 49

OTAGO CYCLING CLUB.

The annual meeting of the Otago Cyclini", CWb was .. held in the club's .room, Octagon, on the 22nd, about 50 members'being present,; Mr S. S. Myers (president) in the chair. It was resolved that, with regard to tha offer of Sir S. Solomon to give a trophy to the most popular member of the club, that the selection should be made by the member*' themselves, each one sending in^a name in si sealed envelope, to be 'opened on the night of the next committee meeting, to be held the first Monday in September, the member getting the most votes to be considered the most popular. The President, in moving the adoption o). the report and balance sheet ' (already published), said that owing to the' fulness of the report, which they had all read, there waa very little left for him to say. He would, however, remark that the slight overdraft at the bankers with which they had finished the year was owing to members' subscriptions coming in too slowly ; to the -small loss sustained at the annual sports — probably on account of the many other calls on the public purse in connection Avith dona-tions to patriotic matters ; and also to the fact that money had been spent in increasing the attractions of the club room or improving the- billiard table, etc.', to the great satisfaction of mem-" bers. •On behalf of the retiring committee he would ask the members to] use their best endeavours to. get as irfany- more members as they could to join during the^incoming season. Considering the numerous ways in which the old members had tried \o popularise the club, it should -now be an> easy matter to^ augment their ranks! ,„ Though', no doubt their "tournaments—euchre, cards,' and billiards — had proved great- successes, having become very popular, ' of course they must not forget that theirs was a cycle idub, and that they wanted to draw cyclists into the club. He thought they could do this by improvising more outings. He Hoped to see the Otago Cycling Club retain its good place among cycle clubs as far as touring and road riding were concerned. The last season's sports, as they knew, were most successful in every way except financially, and of course they could* not; forget that they had won the Bnfield Challenge Cup for the year. — (Applause.) He had very great pleasure in moving the adoption of t^ie report. " Mr H. B. Courtis, in seconding the motion, referred to the various causes which had operated in creating the overdraft, and expressed the conviction that there would be no difficulty in paying it off in the near future. Indeed, he expected that the next sports, if worked up well, would help to reduce it considerably.—The motion was adopted. The election of officers resulted as follows : President, Mr S. S. Myers (re-elected) ; vicepresidents — Dr Stephenson, Messrs S. Solomon, H. B. Courtis, J. M'Donald, A. H. -Bridscer, 0. H. Moller (re-elected) ; captain,' Mr H. Gunthorpe; deputy captain, Mr T. Cole : junior deputy captain, Mr F. Jago ; committee — Messrs "W. Begg, W. Monteith, H. Russell, G. Brown, G. Cap3tick, A. Cowie, and M. H. Rodgers ; hon. treasurer, Mr F. J. Townsend; secretary, Mr D.^ Duncan j audi- • tors — Messrs R. Jay and Jolly. Before proceeding with tlie election- of the committee, the' question was asked by Mr Gunthorpe whether employees of cycle manufacturers were eligible'for election. In reply, Mi 1 Myers explained that this matter had been discussed in committee, and it had been pointed out that a minute existed' deciding that members in the trade could not be elected on committee; also, thajt on one occasion a ■prominent committeeman had been requested to resign for that reason. Such being the case, he could not accept nominations for the committee of members known to be in the trade. Of course, if anyone thought that there was a grievance in this respect, the mattor might be discussed on a future occasion, and they would only be too glad to thresh the question oul thoroughly and ascertain the wishes of th^e maiority. In the course of a^iseussion which followed, it was pointed -out that there were cases in which the decisiQ.n would be a hardship — for instance, in the ca^e of a clerk 'employed in a cycle manufactory,or where a member was employed by an ironmonger who mip:ht casually import for sale a few bicycles. — It was resolved, however, to accept the president's ruling. The follcnying motions, of which due notice had been given, were adopted: — Moved by Mr Courtis, seconded by Mr Townsend— " That rule 21. regulating the time of notice to be given of annual meetings, be altered, to allow of seven instead of 14- days' notice being given." Moved by Mr W. Beger, and seconded — "That rule 9 read as follows: ' That the annual subscription for members be 10s.' " Mr Begg explained that the alteration did away with honorary members, of which at present the number was very few. At one time there had been a good number oi them, but they had gradually dropped out, and it was thought unfair that those remaining should, as some of them actually did', get almost all the privileges of full membera while paying only half the fee. Mr Courtis, as a vice-president, on behal? of the club, presented the president with a very handsomely ilhiminated shield of photc4 graphs of the outgoing committee, and ex 4 pressing the great esteem in which Mr Myer?

ffasheld by all the members; he felt sure that Every time Mr Myers looked at it it would remind him of numerous happy gatherings. In responding, Mr Myers expressed his pleasure that the presentation had been made jit the beginning of the season instead of, as !Rras usual, at its end. One never knew, and of course lie was not exactly a young scorcher, f \vh.ether he would be there to get a presentation later en. They might be sure, however, he would do his best to remain with them another year ; and he hoped to do so for many years. He could assure them that the time tie had spent with the club and on the wheel had been the happiest in his life. He thanked them sincerely for the present and for the ,Very kind terms in which Mr Courtis had Conveyed it. j j Eearty votes of thanks to Mr Myers for the jCrating to Taieri Mouth and to the press for attentions during the season closed the meetI?* j