ALBERT PARK.

Waipa Post, Volume VIII, Issue 372, 4 December 1914, Page 2

ALBERT PARK.

TO THE EDITOR. SIR, —I noticed in your last issue that Mr Wilson's report on the proposed levelling of Albert Park, so as to make that splendidly situated public ground available for general sports, has been laid before the Domain Board, and referred by that Board to the Te Awamutu Chamber of Commerce. I take it, then, that the Board is looking to the Chamber of Commerce to propose some scheme to provide ways and means to carry into effect this very commendable work. As the Chamber started the ball rolling by calling a meeting of delegates of the many sports clubs directly or indirectly concerned, I take it that these delegates will be again called together to receive this report and get to work to carry on the undertaking. As one very much interested in a winter game I hope that no time will be lost, so that we may have the use of the grounds by next season. My idea is that it would best for the town to raise a loan of, say £IOOO, for the erection.of buildings, purchase of trees for a shelter belt, and levelling a portion of the ground to go on with. That loan would mean a rate of about only one-sixteenth of a penny in the £, and, as the money would be spent on town property and for the good of the town, I consider Te Awamutu would get full advantage. As to the clubs, I would suggest that every member assist to the extent of one day's labour —either in actual work or its cash value. That would not be too much self-sacrifice for sportsmen. The maintenance of the grounds could be-secured in many ways, and mainly through the efforts of the sports clubs. Money is required to give this proposal a start, and the raising of a loan seems the only possible wav of success. If properly approached I dare say there are some local people who would advance the money to the town. I will hope for the suggestions of my fellow sportsmen ; the more suggestions before the meeting when it takes place the more likely we are to come to an early decision. —I am, etc., Sport.

TO THE EDITOR, Sir, —I am pleased to think, judging from Tuesdays leading article, that my remarks regarding your " independent " journal have for once pierced, what I was beginning to fear was an impenetrable armour. The questions I asked Mr Young were, I considered, very important, because they indicated that not satisfied with his acrobatic achievements before he entered parliament, he had continued to astonish the multi-

tude with feats of a still moie remarkable character, calculated sooner or later to be fatal in their consequences to the performer. For instance, three years ago Mr Young announced "that he was not out to blindly follow any party.—Principles were and ever would be first with him—he would leave no stone unturned to break down the Party System; under it a man threw his principles to the winds to save his party when in a tight corner. —This was bad for the country, and utterly rotten in principle." Now he finds that a

man must take sides, in fact, whereas three years ago he was "all principle and no party," now he is "all party and no principle." He favoured preferential voting, and I mind thath'eoccupied a long time in explaining the advantages of this system. He voted in Parliament against this, and now says that the more he studies these fancy methods the more he doubts their utility. " The Native Lands administration was rotten in the extreme, and that was the main ground upon which the Government should be thrown from office." If that was his reason then, why does it not hold good now, for certainly the " Reformers " have not made any advance. I dare not ask space to go into the whole indictment, suffice it to say that out of all the reforms which Mr Young advocated, only two have been given effect to—viz., Freehold of Land and Civil Service Control. Other questions I asked were with regard to the Huntly disaster, and which Mr * Young with great equivocation, ' evaded. The Government has not hesitated to make a victim and scapegoat of the unfortunate mine manager, who is not in any sense so culpable as those who ordered his arrest, and I am satisfied that before the last is heard of it, this will be made abundantly clear. In conclusion allow me to say that I am now able to lay a worse charge at your door than lack of independence—viz., lack of veracity. You say that in reply to an enquiry by the candi-