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Tennis Club.

In attempting the history of any Society, however brief and imperfect that history may be, it is obviously the duty of the historian to put before his readers as clearly as may be the circumstances of the formation and constitution of that Society. But in the Victoria College Tennis Club these questions are not such as to be lightly approached, and it is his anonymity alone which serves to brace this scribe to his task. For is it not a thing of common report that those who formerly were bound in the closest ties of friendship now pass each other in the corridors scowling with inveterate hate, their friendship split upon the rock of controversy as to whether the Tennis Club has power to alter at will the subscription payable by its members, or whether it is not a body merely subordinate to and exercising privileges granted to the Students' Society, and therefore powerless to tax its members without permission from the Students' Society ?

The early records are, unfortunately, but too meagre and imperfect. Let us however make the best of them, and go back to the time when the question of obtaining the use of courts for the students was first mooted. In the minute book of the Committee of the Students' Society we find under the date 14th September, 1899, the following entry :—" Moved by Mr. Logan and seconded by Stout" (why Stout' is not worthy of the usual title is not stated) "that Miss Greenfield and Messrs. Prendeville and Craig be a Committee to wait on Mr. Hogg, M.H.R., and to obtain through him an introduction to the Government, to obtain permission to use the Parliamentary Tennis Courts. Carried." Subsequent to this Messrs. Prenderville and Patrick interviewed the Speakers of the General Assembly, and as a result of the interview a letter, now unfortunately missing, was written to the Chairman of the College Council giving permission to the students to use the courts under certain conditions as to their use by members and others. The next step of the Committee of the Students' Society was to set up a Tennis Committee consisting of Misses Greenfield, Fleming and Ross, and Messrs. Smythe, Thomson, Logan, and Richmond, with Mr. Smythe as Secretary and Treasurer. In the minutes of the same meeting we find it recorded that a motion was carried "that the subscription annually be 5s. for the Tennis Club.".

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The first meeting of the Tennis Committee was held early in October, and a spirit of revolt against the position taken up by the Students' Society in fixing the subscription was at once manifest. The opinion was generally expressed that the Tennis Club ought to be a body entirely independent of the Students' Society, with entire power to make its own rules and manage its own finances. To put the Club on a working basis rules were drawn up, and, by special resolution, the subscription was fixed at 5s., the whole question of the constitution to be finally decided at a genenal meeting to be held at the beginning of the next year's term. This general meeting was held on the 28th April, 1900, and the constitution of the Club, including the annual subscription, were agreed to on the lines recommended by the Provisional Committee. To make the relation of the Tennis Club to the Students' Society perfectly free from ambiguity a motion had already been passed at the annual general meeting of the Students' Society to the effect that "The Tennis Club be constituted a separate body from the Students' Society," thus removing all doubts on the question whether the Tennis Club had taken over those rights and privileges which had been granted by the Speakers of the General Assembly to the students.

Coming now to the activities of the Club itself it is not too much to say that its record of matches is a highly creditable one, and that as a social institution it has been invaluable, being one of the greatest factors in promoting a feeling of fellowship and esprit de corps among students.

In the season 1900-1901 the Club took an active part in promoting an organized series of matches between the various town and suburban clubs, including all the chief clubs except Thorndon, and succeeded in winning all their matches except one in the second round, against the Wellington Club. This left the Wellington Club and our own with a tie for first place. Unfortunately it was found impossible to arrange to play this tie off. Last season it was found impossible to arrange a sham series of matches between the clubs, but several matches between outside clubs and our own took place, and the Club was also represented at the tournament at Christchurch, where the lady members particularly distinguished themselves. This tournament will be found more fully dealt with on another page.

Coming to individual members of the Club we notice that out of the team of ten who represented the Club in its first match with an outside club, five were also members of last year's cam, i.e., Misses Van Staveren and Ross, and Messrs. Wilson, Richmond, and Beere. Miss Greenfield, who was our first lady player on that occasion, has since left Wellington. M r. F. D. Thomson, another member of the team, is now in England page 21 in the capacity of private secretary to our Premier. Mr. J. Burns, who was for two years easily first among the men, did not join the Club until some months after its formation; but from that time until his acceptance of a position in the country early this year, he held, with scarcely a break, his place at the top of the ladder.

Ours is so young a Club that this historian has been unable to ascertain that any of its members have attained fame through the practice of moral qualities acquired on its Parliamentary Tennis Court. A list of such persons would have been a fit and proper ending for this notice, and it is with sincere regret that the writer is compelled to close without it.