BEAR GARDEN OR BEAUTIFYING SOCIETY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2588, 2 June 1923, Page 2

BEAR GARDEN OR BEAUTIFYING SOCIETY.

Had a stranger happened on the annual meeting of the Foxton Beautifying Society at one stage of the proceedings on Thursday night, the question that would he uppermost in his mind would be: Is this a bear garden? There were participating in a debate, the Mayor, Town Clerk, a Councillor, an ex-Magistrate, a “gentleman of the cloth,” a member of the Fourth Estate and a leading soft-goods man, one or two lading soft-goods man also one or two ladies. The scribe does not mean to say that they were all talking at once, but the rules of debate were ignored. • They all seemed to be in dead earnest. The chairman, a perveyor of the “staff of life” was seized with the dignity of the presidential elevation and, like a good servitor, endeavoured to please all parties, with the proverbial result. The battle waged round the “modest” request from the Borough Council for a gift of £250 from the society’s exchequer towards the erection of pavilion on a public reserve. Defeated in an attempt to alter the society’s constitution to allow moneys to be expended by the society on works other than planting and beautifying, the Mayor sought another way to obtain the money, and signally failed.

One lady expressed the opinion that the Mayor, knowing the-feeling of members should not have brought up the matter again. She said the society was not antagonistic to the footballers, but there were other grounds than Easton Park for them to olay on and it was impossible to carry out the original scheme if football was played on Easton Park which was intended as a play ground for all. Mr McMurray said when the Park was given by Mr Easton, the Borough Council were going to carry out, on their own. the wishes of the donor, and in order to do so obtained the services of Mr’Black of Palmerston North, to draw up a plan showing the laying out, etc. The Council also erected a handsome fence, gates, and fenced the Park in but when the Beautifying Society came into existence the Council ceased operations, leaving the matter to the society. He said the Mayor was in error in saying that the expenditure on Easton Park was over £7OO. He had obtained the figures from the Town Clerk that morning, the amount being £450 3s Bd. The Mayor: For what years? Mr Mo Murray: 1021, 1022, and 1023. The Mayor: What about 1020?

Mr McMurray: Yes, 1020 is also included. In 1020 the Reserves account was in credit £4O 3s lid, in 1921, in debit £125, in 1922 £9l and in 1023 £32. Now the Council were quite in order in taking the income from the Reserves to wipe oil' this debit Imt last year when the Mayor found he could not get the £250 from the Beautifying Society, the following motion was put through the Council at the meeting held on July 10th, 1022, proposed by the Mayor: “That in order to arrive at the true income and expenditure of the various activities of the Borough, current rates be annually charged against each separate department.” Mr McMurray said it was quite right that rates should be charged against such things as the Gas Works, Town Hall etc., but he was not certain that when the Councillors vote.d for this they were voting to charge Victoria and Easton Parks with rates, and to-dav the amount taken out of the Reserve account and put into the general fund is £64 15s on these two parks. Then there was £3O per annum proportion of Town Clerk’s salary, and what was left went towards wiping off the debit balance. He said the Act provides that all income derived from Reserves has to be spent on Reserves. So that by doing this the Mayor, although he could not get the £250 from the Soeiety, was getting it in another way by collecting those rates. No other town in New Zealand did such a thing. He said Mr Perreau quoted portion of one of the Mayor’s policy platforms. This, said Mr McMurray, is the whole of it : “To co-operate with the Beautifying Society in the erection of a pavilion in Easton Park and also the encouragement of sport to the full amount of our net revenue from reserves.” Mr Perreau mentioned the matter of boys learning to drink on account of having to go to a hotel to dress to play football on Easton Park. He said he quite greed with Mr Perreau .and that was one reason why he objected to Easton Park as a football ground, and although you may erect dressing sheds there, that is not going to do away with the temptation and for this reason he said that a man who advocates football on Easton Park was no Christian. Mr McMurray said he took second place to no one as a supporter or enthusiast of football and that no one who knows anything about football would prefer the ground east and west on Easton Park to other grounds we have available. As to the Mayor knowing anything about football, he could not kick a ball with either his left foot or his right! Daughter). Mr Easton gave this ground, said Mr McMurrav, as a Peace Memorial Park and instead of this the Mayor is causing it to be a matter of disagreement and contention. The president of the local football club and the ex-secretary voted for the motion to abandon football in Easton Park.

Mr Hollings said it was a pitiful thing for a Borough Council to go cap in hand for a grant to the society, when it should be the duty of the Council and not the society to

provide conveniences on public reserves. The request was both immoral and illegal. The Town Clerk said those who,, had endeavoured to get the had been defeated and he for one, knew when he was defeated and the matter should now be dropped (applause).