EMPIRE GAMES MODELS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 11

EMPIRE GAMES MODELS

TF attention to detail Is the A key to success 4hen it is difficult to see how the Commonwealth and Empire Games Promotion, Canterbury, can fail in its bid to bring the ninth Empiad to Christchurch in 1970. The problem of haw to convince the 40 delegates to the Commonwealth and Empire Games Federation’s four-yearly meeting in Jamaica next month that the venues proposed in Christchurch would be the most suitable has been exercising the minds of local games officials for some time. They would no doubt like to take

the venues in their finished state with them to Kingston but this is obviously impossible. And so they have settled for the next best thing. Miniature models of four of the proposed venues for the 1970 games in Christchurch—including the revolutionary Lancaster Park swimming pool—have been voluntarily constructed by a member of the Canterbury Museum, Mr G. Bagot, in his spare time. They will be placed on display in a special “New Zealand room” in the Empire Games Village at Kingston which the promotion committee (the Mayor, Mr G. Manning, and Messrs R. S. Scott, E. H. Williams and A. I. Cottrell) will use to

sell Christchurch. The model of the Lancaster Park swimming pool is probably the most important of the four. “There will certainly be questions about its feasibility,” Mr Scott said. However, with the use of the model these will be overcome.

The other models are of Queen Elizabeth Park, featuring the all-weather track for athletics, English Park, the cycling venue, and the Centennial Pool, where the diving will be held. Mr Scott, the convener of the publicity committee, said that the four models would be air-freighted to Kingston in the next few days together with vast amounts of other material for both display and giving

away. The four models, which measure up to sft by 3ft in area, would only comprise about half the weight of the material and about one-fifth of the volume. Everything was being sent to special contacts in Kingston and would be placed S the room in the games Ilage In readiness for the arrival of the special fourman committee. One of the features of the room would be a 9ft high front of a Maori meeting house complete with carvings, Mr Scott said. There would be 40 delegates to the federation and eaeh would have one vote. The plan was to bring them all into the “New Zealand room” separately and convince them that Christchurch had the facilities and the capacity to stage the games. Mr Scott emphasised that the committee would not only be selling Christchurch but also the South Island and New Zealand as a tourist attraction. Large parcels of well prepared material had been provided by the Tourist and Publicity Department in Wellington for that purpose, Mr Scott said. Thirteen 16 mm. movie films would also be taken.