The Navy Lark Will Operate
Forum And Aginum

We are very pleased to report that the Navy Lark, operated by the Nelson Society of Modellers, will be sailing over the model yacht pond during the holiday period, from December 16 to January 15. We received an assurance of this two weeks ago from the Mayor, Mr Horne.

By the time this issue is on sale, the Nelson City Council will have held its September meeting at which, we were told, the whole matter would be "clarified".

"It was never the intention of the Council that Navy Lark should not be permitted to operate on the pond during the period under discussion," Mr Horne told "Photo News". Navy Lark was never considered a "commercial" proposition, rather a form of entertainment put on by a non-profit making organisation which, as such, "never entered into the deliberations." Mr Horne made these comments after we had asked why Mr J. W. Sands had been given "exclusive use" of the pond for "commercial" purposes from December 16 to January 15. But we would still like to know - if the words "exclusive use" did not apply to the modellers, and to Navy Lark, then to whom did they apply!

We have ascertained that these two controversial words, "exclusive use", were included in the committee's decision to give Mr Sands a bargaining point. We have also learned that Mr Sands did not ask for the "exclusive" rights. Mr Sands, so we have been told, was seeking an extension of his lease of the pond to the end of January, a period "exclusive" to the modellers' society. Obviously, it was to give Mr Sands a bargaining point that the "exclusive use" clause was incorporated in the Council's decision. We were assured by the Mayor, however, that the society had the right to decline his request for an extension, and that, should the society do so, the operations of the Navy Lark would not be affected.

Mr Horne has also given an explanation of the second decision of the Council relating to the use of the pond by private craft and the control of the pond and craft by Mr Sands. It was never the Council's intention that private craft should be stopped from using the pond, he said. The Council had declined the application of Mr Sands to erect notices preventing private craft from operating on the pond during his tenure of operations. The clause in the decision stating "such control as is necessary to be effected by supervision" related to the control of the activities of all craft on the pond, said Mr Horne.

We will make no further comments on this matter. We raised it in the first place because we felt an injustice was being done an organisation which has worked hard for itself and for Nelson. We are delighted with the Mayor's assurance that there will be no official impediment to Navy Lark's Christmas season operations.