ST. CLAIR BOWLING AND TENNIS CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 2674, 14 June 1905, Page 59

ST. CLAIR BOWLING AND TENNIS CLUB.

A general meeting of ihe St. Clair Bowling Club was held on Wednesday evening. Mr \V. S. Bedfoid (vice-president) in the chair. Mr J. B. Waters and Mr G. J. C. Smart attended as a deputation with reference to the election of debenture-holders as members of the club, Mr J. Kingston, their coadjutor, sending an apology for absence. It was decided, after discussion, on the motion of Mr E. H. Lough, seconded by Mr J. H. Hancock — " That all who subscribe for the purpose of forming the new ground a sum of £5 or more be elected non-playing members of the St. Clair Bowling and Lawn Tennis Club as at present constituted." Mr R. Duncan produced a plan of green and lawn tennis courts prepared gratuitously by Mr J. L. Salmond, and reported as to the probable cost of formation, etc. Mr Hancock, Mr Waters, and Mr Duncan weTe appointed a committee with power to employ an expert to report on the suitab>" l ity of the proposed site and the cost of mamiife a bowling green and two tennis courts in Lower Albert street, also to consider the advisability of acquiring another strip of land adjoining; the committee to report at a meeting to be held on the 14th iust.

That there is money £s well as milk in the cocoanut is clear from Senator Staniforth Smith's article cm the Solomon Islands in the Sydney Mail Land at the Islands can, he says, be acquired either by purchase from tho natives for a few shillings an acre, or on occupation lease from the Government at a nominal rental. Labour is, of course, cheap, and the cost of clearing is consequently light. Tr&ea planted while the clearing is progressing are bearing in five years, and in full bearing at seven or eight years. A full-grow* tree will average 60 nuts a year, and as 50 are planted to the acre, that area will! yipld 3000 nuts, or half a ton of copra, worth £5 "It would be a fair estimate," the Senator concludes, '' to say that a plantation of 1000 acres in full bearing will return a net profit of £3000 a year, if the present price of copra be maintained ; but! in the initial stages all is outgoing for six or seven years, and a person embarking in the industry mu-.c have capital beihind him."

The Lytteltnn Times, in an editorial on the subjoct of tho election of a Speaker of the Legislative Council, expresses the hout» that the Government will rise superior to party considerations, and in the event of the Hon C C. Bowen being" a candidate for the Speakcrship of ihe Co\incil, will support him. Ifc says that there is no other Councillor with such a long i-eeor4 of disinterested public services, while his integrity and impartiality are absolutely above suspicion. The Premier now has another opportunity of showing the emptiness o£ the Conservativo cry of "the sooila to tb.9 victors."