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Wairarapa Daily Times, 5 January 1894, Page 2

fuTtfautrofbf tha fcaasterton Park oaK only bo Moowraendtd on one groand, viz., tln.t tha Council is prepaved to expend a larger Rum upon it in improvements thaf. the Trusteps can aotninaud. The question on which the proposed, transfer turns is whother I tha Council intends to spend Borough rules oti the Park, and if so, how . ranch of them ? A olca«- and intelligible answer to this question must be the basin on which any demand for a change uiuat he considered. The' Borough Council has usually had an un'sappv ktiack of failing in any practical work wbioh it- has undertaken. It, would, perhaps, be cruel to illustrate this fact by » reference to the extremely ornamental ball utterly useless fountain in front of the police station, which belongs to it. The Idea of thoBH who advocate she transfer of the Park is that the Council would relieve them of certain charges which they now have to pay. The Paik Trustees collect about five and twenty pounds a year from the public, and it is thought that the Borough 1 Council would be too proud or too ujpnerous to require a revenue of this T ktnd. In the Borough Council preTpared to-Btirrender-ibescLqharges «nd to vote necefSary expenses out of the rates 1 Then agate it is snid tit at the Council cap put up a grand stand, and the Park Trusts can not afford to do this. Probably a suitable structure would cost £l5O. Is the Council prepared to find the money ? We fancy not, and we are also of ' the opinion that the Park Trustees could raise such a sum of money if the.y made up their minds to do it. On a former occasion ihey raised as much to level and form the Park , Oval, and 'he same men who carried through this work are still on the Trust, and are quite equal to repeating their former achievement. Why did not the Borough Council take over the Park when there was a debt of £4OO hanging round its neck ?. At that tiura the city fathers would not look at it, did not know there was such a place, and when some of them were shown their names attached to the debt bond, they took pains to prove'that their caligrapba carried no responsibility. How that the debt is all paid off the borough Oouooil ouJdenly discovers that it oupbi to take'the property over, This is decidedly generous/ but in the interests of. the. Park . the transfer may ba agreed to if the: Council ia really prepared to find the' money, say for a suitable grandstand, and vole as adequate sum annually for the upkeej of the place. An extra rate of a penny in the pound would no doubt be sufficient to provide for all that ia necessary. If the Borough Council is witling to stnko an extra rate of « penny in' the pound to provide the upkeep of the Park, we will support the proposed transfer. It is beta a that the thing should bo put on « bnsiness foojjog, and we feel saw that the Council will fail in giving satisfaction to the pabho unless ii provides a decent income for the " Park when it takes it over.