NORTH-END BOATING CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 3869, 8 May 1928, Page 17

NORTH-END BOATING CLUB.

APPEAL FOR PUBLIC ASSISTANCE. TO THE EDITOR. Pi s w ith the greatest reluctance that 1 have to ask for your assistance in connection with the destruction of the boat shed and plant of the North-End Boating Club. This club was formed about 30 years ago, and, like all clubs connected with water sport, has had a long and arduous struggle for existence. During the Great War period, the club ceased to function, but after four or five years of strenuous efforts, accentuated by the fact that harbour improvements necessitated shifting the shed, my members have given liberally, and by their own exertions freed the club from debt, and they were looking torivard to a period of comparative security from financial troubles. By the efforts of the particularly keen and desirable class of sportsmen who constituted the membership of my club, the bank overdraft was paid off and a new racing boat was ordered. Now, as the result o'? the unprecedented storm of Monday night and Tuesday morning, the whole slied and its contents have been reduced to matchwood, and the club placed in exactly the same position as it was 30 years ago. \qu and your readers Will readily recognise the rarity of appeals made to the public for '“rowing ” and, in view of the happening of this week, I have no hesitation in appealing to the public of Dunedin for some assistance in again trying to establish a club that has always been noted for its adherence to clean sport and its efforts to uphold the true amateur traditions. My club has been heartened and encouraged by the assistance given and promised by the Otago Rowing Association, and the Port Chalmers, .Queen’s Drive, and Otago Rowing Clubs, and I can also assure the public that our own members are not sitting back, but are already organising for the reinstatement of the shed. ; Any donations that th.e numerous sportsmen of Dunedin may choose to forward will be most gratefully received. — 1 am, etc., _ . Fred Fosteb. President, North-End Boating Club. The following subscriptions have already been received:—Sir George Fenwick, £s' J. N. Miller (Sydney), 15; L. L. Kirk' caldy, £5. • •