SPORTS CENTRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 57, 4 September 1943, Page 8

SPORTS CENTRE

BOTH BUILDINGS EMPTY

SPLENDSD CO-OPERATION

Across-the-street shifts of bulk goods and-skating rinks should he finished now, for the stack of raw sugar which held up the indoor sports stadium plan in the old power-house for so long is gone from Wellington, and more entertainment for the Services and the Navy and a Mercantile Mariiie really should be on the way. Both indoor sports and skating are now possible without more delay than is,needed to get the two empty buildings into shape. But there still seems to be a catch in it.

These two buildings, which had both been used as emergency stores, are the Glide rink, built specially for skating and suitable only for skating; and the Civic rink (old tramway power-house), incidentally suitable for skating, but more valuable, because of it's high, ceiling, for conversion to an indoor sports stadium and with space for banked seating for about 1000 spectators at such games, and much larger numbers at wrestling or boxing matches. Basketball and similar games would be out of the question in the low-ceiling Glide, nor could- banked seating be installed.

•The Americans said, early this year, that they would like to open a sports stadium in the power-house for their own and our servicemen, if they could get the building cleared. More than .that, they offered to, and did, shift most of the sugar stored there, but then came up against delays and confusion which persisted for months, and finally they withdrew their first proposal.

- GLIDE CLEARED, THEN REFILLED. The Patriotic Committee said that they wanted the Glide rink stacked full with wheat and flour, for skating, and at their urging the Food Controller shifted the cereals elsewhere, so that the Glide rink was empty1 and waiting to be renovated for skating. That was about a month ago. The Patriotic Committee had already made arrangements about skates and had entered into terms with a manager, but then, though the Glide rink had , been specially emptied at its request, decided not to use it after all, but" to use the power-house for skating, notwithstanding that the power-house still had 90G" tons of sugar stored in it.' So at.the instance of the Patriotic Committee the sugar was carted across the street and "restacked in the empty Glide skating rink, at a cost of about £400. One reason stated for the £400 across-the-street shift was that' the Glide floor and building would require the expenditure of about £300 and three weeks' work to get it into shape, whereas the power-house could be opened for skating right away. How* ever, yesterday, the City Engineer and two members of his staff visited the. Glide skating rink in company with Councillors Macalister and Nimmo, and after an inspection of floor and building gave the opinion that it should be possible Jto reseal the floor, spraypaint the walls, and make odds and ends of repairs within one week. Had this work been commenced right away when the place was first cleared a month ago; the Glide Patriotic Skating Rink (the name decided upon by the Patriotic Committee) could already have been in full swing and no cor-n-plications would have been placed in tKerwa^T of the sports stadium. '. :CO OPERATION THAT GOT RESULTS. At the stage when this £400 was being, spent by thx* Patriotic Committee on ,a -shift that, turned out to be unnecessary,;, a committee set up from a citizens' meeting-'in the Council Chamber ■on August 24 undertook to try to straighten things out and get effective action. In that it succeeded. Co-operation and practical and generous assistance at once came the way ■• of the • citizens' • committee,---cind - the i supposedly t impenetrable . .confusions ' * and endless 'obstacles' became nonexistent within half an hour of the .. first approaches. By long distance telephone calls reception of the sugar was arranged for'in .Auckland, and the last bag of sugar" went on board ship within 96 hours1 of the word to go. This stillA would have been not possible but for the magnificent co-opera-tion and generous attitude of those authorities who, urgently needing recreational facilities for their men, undertook the shift. So ready was this co-operation that the work went on round the clock, in three shifts, until .the job was done. These authorities do not wish to be named, but it is an easy guess. From Government "and Government Departments the same co-operation was at once forthcoming. The next stage will be the decision by the City Council whether or not to make a-special vote to fit the powerhouse building for indoor sports. - A wooden floor is essential for hard indoor sports, particularly for basketbaJ, and also -as an extra dance floor. . The management of the Patriotic Skating Rink, which will also be available to civilians during certain hours, has been arranged on a fixed salary basis. Such an arrangement may not be so easy for the sports centre, but inquiries'have beenmet with the same '•'. readiness, to assist ■ as. ■ was shown m getting the power-house ready\for use as a-stadium, with no particular claim • for priority from anyone, so long as the job is done. There is no lack of competent sports supervisorsl and preliminary plans for programming indicate that the place can be profitably used on seven, nights a week and at weekends. Generous assistance hasj also been promised in regard to sports equipment. ANY FURTHER TANGLES? There may have been confusion and cross purposes up till now—as when one set of workers was toiling round the clock to empty the Glide rink for skating arid another rival set worked overtime on Sunday to get the powerhouse also ready for skating—but what matters from now on is that botn buildings are available for a clear start, and unless some further tangle can be created both forms of entertainment should be going concerns within a month at most, skating in the building that was built for skating and is useless for sports, and sports in the on<? building that can readily be adapted to that purpose.

There should be no reason for another across-the-street shift, yet, even at this stage, the Patriotic Committee is working to start skating, not in the Glide Rink building, but in the building that should become the sports stadium.