PARK OVALGROUND COMMITTEE

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1972, 23 April 1885, Page 2

PARK OVALGROUND COMMITTEE

A meeting of- the : abpve committee was held last Present—Messrs Payton, (in. the chair) Moore, Wickens, WickersojV,'Muir aiiH McKenzie. Theniihutesof .'iiie previous meeting were road and confirmed, and it was resolved that the Park Trustees be asked to pay out of balance of cricket rent in their hands an amount'of 28s for cutting grass on the nival.

Mr That this Committee is of :i opinion that granting permission for the use of the park oval for the purpose of football will prove fatal to the intents of cricket, and earnestly protests against the adoption of such a course. He argfied that the Oval ground was soft, %reiilso being no bottom to the grass, andit f ould be necessary to improve the ground the winter months. He sympathised with the fgotbajlers, byt they had not towards the cost of making the ground. Mr Wickens seconded the motion. Mr Payton suggested that there was room between the Oval and the river to form a football ground. Mr McKenzie thought that football on the Oval would do more good than harm to tlio ground, provided play were stopped within a reasonablo tpe. Footballers were numerically stronger than tho cricketers, and they would have contributed towards the cost of the Oval if they had thought tlioy liave been allowed to play on it. '

•Mr M(jjrfaped to §ee fpotballing and cricket coi)!d be carried out successfully tpgethor on the Park Oval, and as tho footballers never made any effort to help in tho construction of the ground, tho cricketers ought to have preference. Tho resolution was then put and carried,

It was then resolved on the motion of Mr Moore, seconded by MrMuir,—That tho Trustees be requested to. grant a leaso of the Oval to a joint committee of the Cricket Clubs at a peppercorn rent, for a period of one year, subject to any rights which may have been granted to the Caledonian or other Societies for the use of the Oval on certain specified days. The Committee expressed an opinion that there was ample room in the Park outside the limits of the Oval, for the purpose of constructing a football ground.