The annual general meeting of members of the Shanghai Recreation Club was held on Monday evening in the Municipal Board Room, the President, Mr. H. J. H. Tripp, in the Chair, There was a good attendance of members.
In proposing the adoption of the report and accounts, the Chairman said—Gentlemen, the first thing to come before the meeting is theoonsideration of the report and aconunts, and Ithink there is very. little to be sid on them, for everything is very fully put befure you and explained but if any gentlemin wishes to make any remarks I am ready to heat him. There is one subject mentioned in the report, which, although it is touched upon there calls I'think for fuller remark. think it is due to the late Mr. Row. lund, to say how deeply his death i regretted by the Club, He was a man who always had the interest of the Club at heart, and it ought to be placed on record what @ great loss he is to the Recreation Club, Te there are no remarks to be made gentlemen I will propore—That the report and accounts as brought before the meeting be accepted and passed.
Mr. Campbell seconded and the motion was carried unanimously.
The meeting then proceeded to the election of " Committee for the ensuing yest, with the result that Messrs. Brown, Cooper, Crawford, Nazer, Pesce, Sharp, Tripp and West, had a majority of votes, while Messrs, Bennett, Mann, Campbell and Voelkel, tied for the last two places, 10 members being required for the Com mittee. A fresh ballot was taken for two out of these four names, and resulted in the election of Messrs. Voelkel and Mann, The meeting then proceeded to elect ten additional gentlemen to form with the general Committee, the Balloting Comfnittes for the ensuing year. Mesare, Bennett, Campbell, Cave, Melvor, McLeish, Mielenbausen, Moutrie, Tuck, Cope and Morris were elected.
Phe Chairman then said he thought the members might congratulate themselves on having such a favourable report put before them, particularly as regarded the balance in hand, $973 against $664 last year. The expenses of the coming season would naturally be increased by having to pay interest on the advance for the new pavilion, but besides that there was not very much extra expenditure to be looked forward to. He trusted all the members would consider they now had a very nice pavilion which in all res; was a great improvement on the old one. (hear hear.) An important thing to be remembered was the coming off match with the Cricket Club, which was put down onthe Cricket Club's list for next Saturday, but it was proposed to ask that Club to postpone the match for a fortnight if they possibly could, because the Athletic Sports having come off two weeks later than originally intended, the members of the Recreation Club have had very little time for practice at cricket and be trusted the members would try to practise as much as possible before the match, in which he hoped the members of the Recreation Club would show a good result. (hear, hear.) The return match would be at the end of the season, and the first match, which would be played on the Recreation Ground, would be made the occasion for the opening of the new pavilion.
Mr. Harvie said that while he was sure the members were all delighted with the report, he thought the Committee might pay a little more attention to other mes. There was not sufficient mention made of football, and though the Club was originally started as a baseball club, that game seemed to have entirely dropped out, quoits used to be played, but these games are now overlooked and the Club seemed to be becoming entirely a cricket club.
The Chairman said he thought the report would indicate why football had not been played this year. It was in consequence of some trouble with the Football Club, who rather wished to have too much say in the matter, Besides the ground was not the proper place to play football in, and as the members would see in the Report the Committee endeavoured to save the ground as much as possible in order to let it recover itself, which had been of grent benefit to the ground, Laat yenr, he believed they had a great deal of and as for lawn tennis, a large of the ground was devoted to it and great many members played it. He did not think on the whole that cricket commanded the whole ground. Lawn howls were omitted last' year, because I|the ground for that game requires a great deal more care than a cricket or tennis ground, and also because it entails a great deal of expense, At all events the neeming Conmittee would consider Mr. Harvio's remarks; it was not the intention that cricket should be the only game played on the Recreation ground, Mr. H. J. Sharp read some extracts from the minutes ut a Committee meeting with reference to the dispute with the Football Club, and also portion of a letter written to the Secretary of that Club sayin, that the old terms could. not. be accepted for th ut of playing football on the Recreation ground, and proposing that for this privilege members of the Football Club should become honorary members of the Recreation Club. Mr. Sharp went on to say that the first named Club would not listen to the proposition and wanted to have four Committee men against the Recreation Club's two; but as these terns would be grossly unfair to the majority of members of the Recreation Club, they were not accepted. He had since written to the Secretary of the Football Club asking him to make some further proposition, but as that letter had never been answered he had concluded to let the matter drop.
Mr. T. Brown supplemented Mr. Sharp' remarks by saying that they found they could not admit the Football Club to play on their ground on the old terms, when they found last season that they only received $13.99 from the Football Club, while they had to expend about $100 in the returfing rendered necessary by the game.
After some further discussion Mr. Sharp proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the sub-Committee, Messrs. Tripp, Brown and Nazer, who had had all the trouble of the new pavilion. (Applause).
The meeting then terminated with a vote of thanks to the Chairman.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.