VISIT OF INDIAN TROOPS

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 74, 30 March 1901, Page 3

VISIT OF INDIAN TROOPS

DISCUSSION AT COUNTY COUNCIL..

CE COOPER WANTS A NATIONAL PARK.

Ax the meeting of the Cook County Council yesterday, some discussion took place with regard to the account, £24 ss, the Council’s share of the cost of entertaining the Indian troops. The Chairman said that the Borough Council and Harbor Board had paid their shares of the amount, and he supposed they would have to do the same. Cr Cooper : Did we arrange to do this ? The Chairman : No; it was done so suddenly that there was no time to call meetings. Cr. Graham : I think it is right that the Council should pay a share of the cost, but at the same time they might have been asked. The Chairman : Most of our members live out of town, and it is hard to get them together. I move that the account be paid. Cr Tombleson : I second the motion, because I think it is a fairer way of making a levy than by individual subscription. At the same time, I do not think that the most was made of the occasion. There has been a great deal of complaint about the way the men were hawked off to the races. A great deal more might have been done on the ltecreation Ground, and something in the nature of a military display might have been held. The people were growling a good, deal also about the arrangements in connection with the gathering. They could not even get near enough to hear the speeches. Cr Graham : That was all the better, I should think.—(Laughter.) Cr Tombleson: I understand that the first thing the officers asked after landing was whether the horses were quiet, to allow them doing a little tent-pegging. The Chairman : The Committee were dis tinctly instructed from Auckland that the visitors would not do anything in the way of giving a display. Cr Tombleson: The people were crowded in a very small space at the Recreation ground, and many could not see and hear what was taking place. Cr Cooper: I think it is high time that the local bodies joined, and secured a national park of some kind. Just take, for instance, the position we were in upon the occasion of the visit of the Indian troops. There was not room for one to turn round in the Recreation ground. It is a standing disgrace to a district like this that we have not a public park. If the public bodies joined, the matter could be easily got over, but the longer the thing is neglected the greater wiil be the difficulty. You would have at present to pay three times the price for land than you would have done some years ago. Cr Mossman : The Natives were brought from all parts of the district to take part in the demonstration, and were not given an opportunity to do so. I know very well that there were hundreds of persons present who would have liked to have seen the Natives perform apart from the visitors. The Chairman: They will have an opportunity to-morrow of seeing a much better one. The account was passed for payment.