HAMILTON PUBLIC HALL

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1329, 6 January 1881, Page 2

HAMILTON PUBLIC HALL

A meeting of the omraitee and other gentlemen interested hi the erection of a ■ Ifublic Hail, was held iv the Council '■'CKiimbe'nnthe eveuing of Tuesday. The l M\y6*F*presided, and introduced the business by submitting the following communication addressed to him by the Rev. Mr Calder: — "1 :un requested by the Vestry of S. Peter's Church to forward' to you the following resolution passed at 1 the last" meeting i ■' Resolved^that" the" meeting be requested to write to the chairman of the Public Haft Truces, stating that unless theTtrustees are prepared -to - carry out~their.arrangementwith t.he> .Vestry, , r that the Vestry •will proceed to expend the £150, the proceeds pf>she Jbazaar, by erecting Sunday -school building. 1 I shall be glad if y.qu wilji lay this master before a^neetiing of the trustees^ .and communicate with me upon the subject at your earliest convenience." ' ' ' In reply to, questions put, Mr F. A. Whitaker stated that an agreement had been v drawn, relative ,tq the conditions upon which the money would be handed over to the trustees, but it had not been executed. Rev. Mr Calder read the following minute of the" meeting of the Bazaar Committee, held on December 16fch, 1878, at which he (Mr Calder) presided, and Mr Hume was aaked to act as treasurer: — ' It was resolved that the sum of £150 be ! paid to the Hall Trustees as soon as the agreement between the Hall Trustees and the -Church representatives be • signed. Mr Whitaker moved as an amendment, that the words after trustees be omitted for insertion of the word "forthwith," The amendmsnt was put and lost. Mr Jobnson saicl it appeared that there was 80 much money in the Bank to the credit of the treasurer of the Bazaar Committee. There was nothing to prevent them getting that money, and having set uted it they could institute a canvass of the town, and see what subscriptions could be got. He felt convinced that in three or four weeks time they would be placed in a position which would warrant building operations being commenced, and the remainder of the money could be raised on security of the gronud. Replying to a question put by Mr Whitaker, statements were made to the effect that the cost price of the goods with which the bazaar was stocked amounted to £64 10s Bd. The amount realised wns close upon ,£4OO, and that the money outside of the £150 hail been used for liquidating liabilities tgainst the church. Mr Hill thought it must be plain to them all that the effort to erect a public hall in 'Hamilton! West had not been successful, and he would therefore counsel them to abandon the proposal, at all events for the present. They had, a good public hall on the other .side ;, a hall quite sufficient for all tho requirements of tho district. Mr Whitaker espoused a similar view, Jiddinp: as a further suggestion that the £150 mijrht very judiciously be expended in enlarging and improving the accommodation of the Oddfellows' Hill, so as to make it suitable for Volunteer and other purposes. Mr Gwynne altogether objected to any such proposal being entertained. The primary object of the whole proceeding was to get a Sunday-school buildiug, and at n later period of the transaction it was thought proper to enter into certain arrangements, so that the building might be made suitable for Volunteer and other public purposes. The money had been subscribed on that understanding, and on that understanding they were bound to act. It had never for one moment been contemplated that the money should be expended ou the Oddfellows' Hall. That was no part of the object. • If they found that they were unable'to carry out the original purposes of the Trust, their dufcy was to hand this money back to the Sunday-school authorities, , but under no circumstance would they be justified in expending it on the Oddfellows' Hull. Mr Whitaker said it had never boen contemplated thnfc a sum in excess of £2.70 would be spent on a, Sunday-school building 1 , and a sum equal to that amount hud been already spent on church purposes. That being the case, this £150 clfnrly belonged to the public. Mr Gaudin said the meeting had not bepu called to discuss the mflnner in which the -£?50 had been spent, but merely to deal with the money in hand. They had agreed to provide the church with school accommodation in consideration of the £100 paid. If that accommodation were not supplied, the church had a rivrnt to j»et the money returned. Rev. W. Calder reviewed the circumstances under which the bazaar had been organised as far back as the months of June or July, 1878. It was undertaken by lady members of his congregation, the proceeds to bo devoted to the erection of a Sunday-«chool building. The necessity for such a building was apparent to them all. It was highly inconvenient for the church to be used for Sunday-school purposes. Frayer«books were apt to go astray, and then, again, he did not believe in having a lot of children congregating in his church. They were apt to soil ami otherwise abuse the building. It was in view of these exigencies the bazaar had been undertaken. It was while the prime movers in the affair were absent that certain influential citizens induced the other persons interested in the undertaking to devote the proceeds to the erection of a public hall instead of the Sunday-school. What these influential citizens alleged in support of this diversion was that Hamilton wanted a public hall, the cost of which was estimated at £2000. In consideration of the bazaar committee devoting this £150, the Sunday-school was to be secured certain privileges, and until they were put in possession of these privileges, the money, he contended, belonged to them. They were prepared to go on at once with the erection of the school building as originally proposed, They would have it finished in three months. What the church said was : Seeing that you are not able to carry out your original agreement, give us over the money and we will carry out our original purpose. There was 'no use whatever for the previous speaker to talk aboiit ' the money belonging 'to the public. The fact was, the Church of England, -w/as' the public, and the public was the Church of England (Laughter). Mr Whitaker paid a very simple answer could be made to the claim just put forward. The facts ot the case were these. A sum of £150 had been expended on goods to stock this bazaar. That outlay Had realised over £300. Many persons attended the bazaar and paid targe sums of money, for the artioles, not with the • idea stfi At the proceeds'' were to be j spent, on a Sunday-school building, but spent on the erection of a public hall., - That was the true way to look' at the\ matter, and looked at in that light they could not. admit the claim as sought to be asserted by the Church Vestry. Moreover, he had spoken to one gentleman on the subject — ■Mr Cox— and they all admitted that that gentleman had perhaps, had more to do with the, transaction than any other person ih the' place. Mr Cox's opinion was quite distinct on the point. The money he said did belong to the public and«not to the Church. On that point he wag perfectly clear, jf ; ' ! VMp (fwynrie, after speaking In favor off proceeding with' the; erection .of a Sundayposition toiindertake the hall, concluded by, saying. tVaf « the point' v«a* one o'ili

lomexinportan^&Pfkey should not be masked to^Wide it on the spurt of the raomeut, but that * leaaonable time should be allowed for consideration. He would advise that, say a month, bo taken to see what could be done. If they found they were ablo to go on vtitti the hall, then the £150 could be paid'|u|<|Jhe fund. If not some further arrang^||«fe|fe}ght be come to. IpST Mr Whitakejpj, J:^U^greE|#tli»t so far as I ara concerned. 11 Mr Jß wynne : And then t in the meantime"''*"* further canvaas "for subscriptions oan be made. I will yutAqmy£J) t and I have/lo dqubt-othcrswilKdo similarly. Mr HiU said ho would not agj^&e to the ' prop<ssftT6n^" i jmd""6n 'UeTng! askecTfoVhu reason replied thai itTwaa because they . had got a ball already. Mr Johnston thought there would be no great difficulty in raising the requisite funds for a hall. They had now' £l7o in the Bank ; ' the 'Volunteers' would giro £50, probably, they would getlomthing from Government; they could raise £ISO of £200 by subscription,' and purely they could borrow, the rest. ,» Various . propositions having been put forward, /but not insisted upon, Mr Whitaker ;said that he; strongly objected, and desired his protest to t>e recorded againgst this fund being altered from ita original ;purpose. It wag.^fjind to be held in 'trust 'as a foundation or the basis of a public hall, and not one single farthing ought to have been.' used in liquidation of Church liabilities. The public had subscribed to it for twp objects, the first being the < erection of a sohool, and then for that of a public hall The money spent had not bsen put to that purpose, but had been spent in the payment of Church liabilities. Rev. Mr Calder defended the appropriation of the money paid towards church liabilities, and quoted from a minnte of the Vestry Committee in support of his contention that the money was raised for^chqrch purposes. Mr Whitaker said that no doubt the church desired to have the money in shat way, still that did not ■ give them the right they claimed,; and he bad no doubt but that, if the matter were brought before a Court of Equity, they would have to refund the amount spent. There ! could be no doubt but that fthe> money was intended for a different purpose^taan that to which, it "had been appropriated. As for this £150, he protested that it did not belong to the'Uhurch of England school; it belonged to the public of Hamilton, and it was neither right nor proper that it should, be spent upon any other purpose other than what ■' was decided upon by the public. That was his opinion, and he hoped his protest would be recorded. ' Rev! Mr Calder : What appears to be so very clear to my learned friend, who is a lawyer, is mud, and worse than mud in the eyes of every other person. It was ladies belonging to my congregation that got up the bazaar, and it was got up for Sunday-school pu'-poses. The Public Hall was altogether an after-thought, and arranged in the absence of certain of the ladies who were mainly instrumental in getting up the affsiir. I maintain we 1 had a perfect rijrht to spend the £'2')o as we did on the church, and we are quite prepared to go on with, the erection of the school. I my*elf can raise another £100 for the building— a building that will suit our purpose quite as well us any public hall would do. The Chairman having expressed an opinion that the £150 should be kept in hand until they ascertained the probability or otherwise of a htdl being proceeded with the proposal for adjourning the meeting for one month, to ascertain what could be done in tho interim, was embodied iv a formal motion, which was put to the meeting and carried. The meeting then adjourned.