NOT WANTED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19364, 30 June 1937, Page 4

NOT WANTED

THE PARK DOMAIN OFFERED TO GOVERNMENT DOMAIN BOARD ACTION RACING BAN SEQUEL turf club criticised The old Park racecourse, acquired a few years ago by the Gisborne Borough Council as a public domain, is to be offered to the Government, which also will be asked to take overall liabilities. A decision to do this was reached at a meeting of the council, sitting as the Makaraka Domain Board, last night, when some members criticised the Poverty Bay Turf Club for undertaking not to apply after this year for permission to race on the domain. Those who had voiced this view were among the majority who voted previously that the Turf Club be given permission to race on the Park, and they maintained that they had been let down by the Turf Club’s action. A letter from the Mayor, Mr. D. W. Coleman, M.P., sent from Wellington quoting the attitude of the Minister of Lands, the Hon. F. Langstone, was before the meeting. Is it Binding? The letter, the contents of which have been published already in the Herald, advised that the Minister agreed to racing on the domain this year at the usual admission charges after receiving an assurance from the Turf Club that after this year no further requests for the use of the Park would be made. Cr. P. W. Bushnell: Is it binding the council? The Mayor: It is binding on the Turf Club that it will make no further application. That was their assurance to me. Cr. Bushnell: Then, if the Turf Club cannot make the application, the council cannot. The Mayor said that the Turf Club saw that now that its stand had been burned down it could not expect to race successfully on the Park. Cr. Bushnell said the matter seemed rather involved, and it was unusual that the agreement between the club and the Minister should have been arranged without reference to the board. “Most Unusual Position” The Mayor said he reported to the last meeting of the board that he would approach the Minister in Wellington. Messrs. F. W. Nolan and Harold Bright gave the undertaking not to request any further race meetings on the Park, and if there was any wrangle in the Racing Club he knew nothing about it. The application to race on the Park was refused, and the club’s representatives then came to him and said that if permission were given for this year they would not ask for any further permission.

Cr. Bushnell said it appeared a most unusual position. .The Mayor said that both Messrs. Nolan and Bright assured him that they had gone into the matter, and in view of the enormous expense involved in replacing the stand on the Park it would be better to, hold the meetings earlier in the year at Makaraka. Cr. Bushnell said it seemed that the council was now prohibited from letting the property to the most suitable tenant. (Continued on page 12.)