ABOUT A DONATION

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3570, 2 December 1926, Page 3

ABOUT A DONATION

HOCKEYITES AT VARIANCE An incident arising- out of the carnival effort was ventilated at a special meeting of the Foxton Hockey Club on Tuesday evening, convened by Mr Clark (Vice-president) and the Captain of the team (Miss R, Barber) to inquire into the question of a donation made to the Sports Queen on behalf of the Club by the secretary (Miss B. Gower) and President (Mr D. R. Barron) without the sanction of the Club. Mr Barron (President), occupied the chair. Miss W. Walls asked who would be chairman? Mr Barron: As President of the Club I am Chairman of all meetings. In opening the meeting,-he said that the meeting that night had been called unofficially. It had not been called through the President but evidently this was due to a misunderstanding. It lay with the Chairman, however, to say whether the meeting was in order or not. He would rule that it was in order seeing there were so many present. He did not know what the. business was that the members wished to bring forward, but he had a matter that he wished to deal with first. That was the donation of £25 to the Stands Queen on behalf of the Hockey Club. He then called on Miss Gower to make an explanation. Mr Clark: Was that money voted by members of the Club 'Mr Barron: You will hear that-, from the secretary. Miss Gower said that as a sports body she thought, it the duty of the Hockey Club to support the Sports candidate, in ho recent carnival. On the Sunday night prior to the closing of the voting, she made the suggestion to the President to borrow £25 and give it as a donation to the Sports Queen candidate on behalf of the Hockey Club and to pay the money back by means of dances to be held when the boys were in camp. She rang nine of the members up on the telephone and got their consent to the scheme. Mr Clark: Nine?

Miss Gower: Yes. I thought thatseeing there were only sixteen members, nine, together with the President and a vice-president, would be sufficient to sanction it. Continuing, she said that on the Monday afternoon she drew the money out of her private account and paid if over to the Sports treasurer as a donation from the Hockey Club. The Sports candidate had got in, but not by the £25 paid in by her. At this stage Miss Gower said she wished to clear up.Jwo rumours current in town. One was that the scheme was thought out by Mrs Barron. This was not % so. She had been entirely responsible for it. The other was that if £25 could be raised her father would give another £25. 1 lie Hockey Club’s donation did not have any bearing on this whatever. Mrs Roore had donated one £25, her father the other and the Hockey Club's was the third.

Miss W. Walls asked why Hie committee had not met to consider the question of making the donation. It should have been done by resolution of a meeting of the committee.

Mr Barron: We did not have time to,hold a special meeting so we got the consent of members instead.

i Miss Walls objected to this procedure.

Mr Clark: Seven days written notice is required to be given to members before matters of finance can be dealt with by the Club. Consent by telephone was not legal, be added.

Mr Barron: Seeing you’re so conversant with the rules, why didn t you adopt the proper procedure in convening this meeting?

Miss Walls asked why the secretary had pot consulted her re granting the money.' She must have known that some of the members would not have agreed to it. Miss Gower: Yes, that is so. I didn’t have time to call a meeting and so marked off those who T knew would vote against the proposal. I marked you off for one. She admitted the meeting should have been called. Mr Clark: The people who voted that money will have to be responsible for it. The donation is OUT OF ORDER. Mr Barron: That is not so for tire simple reason that we obtained the consent of the majority of the members, which was just the same as holding a meeting. , Mr Clark again questioned the legality of the method adopted. The President then asked someone to move that the action of the President and Secretary be confirmed. Miss E. Henskie: I’ll do it. Mrs Barrofyseconded the motion. Mr Clarke: This is out of order. ACTION NOT UPHELD. 1 Mr Clarke then attempted to explain the state of affairs to some new arrivals, but the President informed him "that the secretary would make any explanation necessary, which she did, after which the motion was put and lost by eight to five. The voting was as follows: For the motion: Mrs Barron, Mr Barron, Misses Gower, Stevenson, and E. Henskie. Against: Mrs D. Bail, Mr Clark, Misses Peryman, Woods, T. and E. Patterson, W, Walls and R. Barber. Mr Barron: Well it’s lost and I’m sorry to see several members present who said they were in favour of the scheme and who are now voting against it, making reference to two names. Miss Peryman said that when she had been rung up by Miss Gower Bhe had been informed that the

Hockey Club had decided to give the donation and was asked if she favoured it.

Miss Gower denied this and said that she had asked if Miss Peryman would favour a donation from the Club. M.iss Woods said that the secretary had been informed on her behalf almost immediately that she (Miss Woods) was not in favour of the scheme after she had been rung up on the matter by the secretary. Miss Walls asked how it was that another member of the Hockey Club, who was also a queen candidate, had not been given a similar grant, but was ruled out of order by the chairman.

Miss R. Barber (Captain)'said that she had never been communicated with on the matter. The first she had heard about it was a week after in the street. She would certainly have been opposed to making such a grant. Miss Gower said she had tried on three occasions to get in touch with Miss Barber on the matter. Mr Barron: We have the money in hand anyway. Mr Clark: The Club is not responsible for the debt? Mr Barron: No! Miss Gower: I thought the Foxton Hockey Club members were sports, but there’s not 'a sport among you and I will give the money as donation myself. Mr Barron concluded the meeting by exclaiming “Thank God we have got a few sports anyhow.”