LANCASTER PARK HISTORY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24907, 21 June 1946, Page 8

LANCASTER PARK HISTORY

REVIEW BY BOARD “IN NO SENSE A PUBLIC GROUND ” “In the recent controversy arising from the Rugby League’s application for the use of Lancaster Park there seems to be a good deal of misunderstanding regarding its ownership and history. The board of control therefore considers it desirable that the public should have placed before them the actual facts concerning the changes that have taken place in the control of this ground,” reads a statement issued yesterday on behalf of the Lancaster Park Board of Control by Mr J. O. McGillivray, secretary of the board.

There is no need in this statement to make reference to the long years of ownership by the original Lancaster Park Company from 1881 to 1904. during which cricket was the chief source ?on^ eV u nu 1 e j A recital of events since 1904 should suffice to clarify the posiJ n that year the Canterbury Cricket Association purchased the freehold and took over all the liabilities of the ground, which was heavily mortgaged. The growing interest in ■Rugby football convinced the board of that jme that the park, to become a modern sports ground, should have an oval with an embankment right round, capable of accommodating large crowds. 3s well as having extra stands.

“The first proposal was to sell the frontages on Stevens and Leicester streets and have one big oval in the centre which could gradually be made into playing areas like the great grounds in Sydney and Melbourne The cash from the sale of sections would have enabled this reconstruction work to have gone on at once. If was at this time. 1912. that the Canterbury Rugby Union was invited to join forces with the Cricket Association. but the single oval did not satisfy tne union s requirements, for it wanted ?. ground large enough to provide for its three senior matches each Saturday When a new clan was submitted showing Lancaster Park as it is to-day. y Union at once accepted the invitation to join hands with the «5 terS j an sn . a half interest in the ground. The union had a trust ref l '! 00 and it put the whole of this into the park as its share or the partnership. Joint Canvass for Funds nr'i'ol t hould be said that this purchase c ®. b °£ e no relation to actual values C™ he fi nances Of the Lancaster Park Company were ln the same parlous state as they yere when the cricketers S round - It was then agreed that a joint canvass of cricket !? d . fo °t ba ‘ i supporters should be rnade. This met with a liberal response and £3OOO was raised Cricketers and footballers added their weight u+nK 1 ™?. * tes and raffles ete., mill H ! xtra grist to the S ot note that the late contShntfnn Cllflord made a generous ■2®,trigution on condition that the ground would not be used for sports fixtures on Good Friday. ;nd this reS? es J ha s bben accepted as a policy ot and ngldly adh ered to since

Great interest was taken in the reconstruction work of the park and the ®F° u “ d now seemed set on a fairweather course towards success. Then came the Great War. and once again riolaS ance . s of the park were in the S?}? rums ’ tor-all bis cricket and football ceased to' be played, and the ground was ploughed up to obtain refrom crops of potatoes. k S^ WaS th « state of affai rs when S A oldlers returned from overseas, and there was a general desire to have the ground freed from debt so that the young cricketers and footballers CBl,ed upon to go o, e , s^ Bae anxious times as u e lot ot their predecessors. Several schemes were discussed the Snnorfe°. U n e A b *i? g another appeal to ■supporters of both games. Rugby Union’s "Sole Right” B- Gt»ula, the secretary to the Lancaster Park Board at this time was also secretary to the Commerciai Travellers Association, and he brought forward a proposal whereby the travellers association would throw their energies and organising ability into a scheme to raise funds to clear off the mortgage. The stipulation made—that tne ground should never again be mortgaged and that to ensure this the Sreenold title should be vested in the Crown—caused the Rugby Union long and anxious thought, for League football was already ousting the New South Wales Rugby Union players from the Sydney Cricket Ground, and Canterbury Union officials were loth to part with their share of Lancaster Park freehold rights, and argued that Investment of the title in the Crown would preclude them from obtaining any financial assistance from the New Zealand Rugby Union, which they knew would be forthcoming “It was estimated at the time that Knottier appeal to cricket and football supporters would realise about £5OOO. but Mr F. Wilding, who had borne the burden of management for so many years, insisted that the mortgage of s£B®oo must be totally liquidatea. and it was largely due to his attitude and influence that the Rugby Union gave way. but Mr Wilding met the Rugby Union’s objections by having included tn the act the stipulation that the Rugby Union would have the sole right of deciding what Rugby football should be played on the park. Mr Wilding also gave an undertaking that the act based on this agreement could toever be altered. “The whirlwind success of the Commercial Travellers’ Association’s organisation of three successive art unions, when the prizes were bungalow homes (complete), will be remembered

Purchase of the Bungalows. “There is an important point in connexion with these art unions that is toot generally understood, and which has resulted in the sole credit often being riven to the Commercial Travellers’ Association, whereas it was the cricket and football supporters who subscribed the money to purchase the bungalows that were raffled. No public subscription lists were opened. Even the Commercial Travellers’ Association themselves do not claim more than the credit for a magnificent organising effort.

“The above statement should make it clear that throughout the years it has been the cricketers, and then the cricketers and footballers, who were responsible for Lancaster Park being in existence to-day, and it was on account of this that the act made definite provision for the protection of the Canterbury Cricket Association and the Canterbury Rugby Union in the promotion of their respective games. “From this it is abundantly clear that Lancaster Park in no sense whatever can be termed a public ground.” The statement is accompanied by a declaration by Messrs Charles R. Clark. F. T. Evans, and Daniel Reese, the only surviving members of the 1919 board of control, that they consider it to be “a fair and correct account of the sequence of events, of the negotiations which took place, and of the agreements arrived at in connexion with Lancaster Park.”