The Boating Club.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 25, 30 December 1884, Page 2

The Boating Club.

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE STANDARD.) Sib,—ls it afact that some ill-favoured member of the community has been potting up the Natives of Awapuni to assert their claim to the lagoon and try and levy black mail on Ihe Club ? I can scarcely imagine that '^anyone could be so mean as to do sush; a thing, but the rumour is freely stated and is believed m many quarters, and is also liable to injure materially the prospects of the Club. The Natives, as a rule, are quite clever enough to look after themselves without being put up to these kind of tricks by the pakehas. jI. really do not believe that unless it .had been put m their heads, the Natives-would have ever dreamt that they had any vested right m the Lake, muchness of seeking to assert it, or to extort money thereby. A person guilty of suoh an act should be astracised by the whole community. Though not a member of the Boating Club, I wieh it all success, because I think it will be the means of doing a * large amount of good\ physically and socially, to the inhabitants, and is one of those institutions that should be encouraged m every possible way. I cannot think what gain it could be to anyone to seek to raise complications with the Natives, and I should be. sorry to think that they would bo foolish enough to be misled by anything said to them about asserting their rights. Do. you know is the boat-shed ou their land, or are they likely to raise any objection to the Europeans using the lake for boating purposes ?—I am, &c, Awapdhi. [We are sorry to learn that there are grounds for any complaint of the kind. We have reason to believe that the Natives have been told certain things with a view to induce them to demand payment for the" use of the lake for boating purposes. However, it is likely that wiser counsels will prevail, and that they will recognize the discretion of uot acting m a hostile spirit. The boatshed is on the gravel reserve, the property of tho Manawatu Road Board. The lake we believe is not Native property, but the Native owners would have a perfect right, which none would question, to make some nominal. charge for the use of their land by the public on the occasion say of a regatta on the Lake, when a gate could be erected, and the privilege purchased from the Natives and dealt with by the Club to the best advantage. We trust no hostile intervention of the kind referred to will tend to damage the prospects of the Club, or raise complications of an undesirable nature between it and the Natives. En, M.S.]