REMARKS AT BOARD MEETING

Taranaki Daily News, 15 May 1931, Page 7

REMARKS AT BOARD MEETING

PUKEKURA PARK SPORTSGROUND. PROTEST BY GROUND COMMITTEE. The published, remarks of members of the Pukekura Park Board, at a meeting last Tuesday, in reference to the matter of buildings near the sportsgrOUi|d were Ahe subject of a special meeting of the Sportsground Committee last night, when strong exception was taken to the tone of the remarks. After the position had been explained it was resolved that “Having- read a report of the Pukekura Park Board meeting held on Tuesday evening, and as the statements regarding the proposed buildings on the sportsground Wei‘6 quite incorrect, this meeting requests its chairman and secretary to draft a letter io the secretary of the Pukekura Park Board setting out the actual facts.” The reported remarks to which exception was taken were as follow: —

“The board decided to request the sportsground committee to have the ticket boxes at the entrance tp the park painted brown, or some harmonising colour. “The question of the erection of buildings in the park was discussed by the board when the chairman stated that tlie sportsground committee proposed to erect a concrete restroom in the edst.corner of the'ground. “Members of the board said that they felt the board should have been consulted by the committee. The board had no desire to see the park studded with buildings which might nof be designed to harmonise with t ie surroundings. The board decided to request tpe sportsground committee to set Up a committee to confer with a committee from tlie board regarding the building, and the question of buildings in the park generally. Messrs. Anioore, Tate and Barker were appointed to confer with the committee.”

The chairman of the sportsground committee (Mr. E. Jackson) explained that, the executive had met Mr. F. Amoore, the chairman of the Pukekiira Park Board, and Mr. H. Dempsey, another member Of the boill'd, and Conferred regarding the proposed erection ot a rest room for ladies near Fillis Street, at an estimated cost of £lOO. Owing to the advantage of getting the excavation work done immediately by unemployed relief work this was put m hand at once. Mr. Amoore, as chairman of the board, was present all the time, concurred entirely in the suggestion, and offered to assist with the erection of the building. He had also been added to the sportsground committee’s special sub-committee appointed to deal with the matter. Why the committee’s position was not stated by Mr. Anwore at the recent meeting of the board he could not understand. It was because of his position as chairman of the board that Mr. Amoore whs invited to Join the sub-committee. The position was all the more strange since the £lOO proposed to be expended by the committee on tlie rest room was practically a gift from the committee to the board.

He took strong exception to the remarks made at the Pukekura Park Board meeting, continued Mr. Jackson. They were remarks such as tended to strangle the committee in its best endeavours. The committee had been placed in a false position. Probably the public did not realise that the coinmittee paid the board £2OO a year for cutting the grass and marking the ground, etc., mid gave a great deal of time, and personal attention in improving the ground am. looking after it. All it received in return was offensive references at the board meeting. Mr. Jackson added that Mr. Spence could not have been very conversant will, the facts when lie complained about the alleged unsightly appearance ot the new ticket boxes. Perhaps he did not realise that they had only just been constructed, in expensive design, in order to harmonise with the surroundings, and when Mr. Spence saw them they had merely been ’‘primed” prior to being given two coats of green paint. Those present at the meeting were Messis. E. Jackson (chairman), C. N. Johnson, D. F. C. Saxton, V. C. Garth, Jas. McLeod, Jas. Garcia and L. Little (honorary secretary).