Page:1930 QLD Royal Commission into Racing Report.djvu/45

45 Thereafter, the total receipts were never such as to make possible the payment of £10,000 a year, to say nothing of the stipulated £20,000.

By November, 1924, this position had been realised, and the vendors, on Burke's representations, gave a written undertaking to forego their right to charge interest on instalments already in arrears and to accept, for the future, instalments at the rate of £10,000 a year instead of £20,000. They, however, reserved the right to revert to the larger instalments on three months' written notice at any time.

Notwithstanding this concession, the club fell further into arrears, and from time to time obtained further concessions from the vendors, in the form of suspension of payments, to enable it to meet such obligations as a heavy assessment of income tax covering several years, and an expensive wall to provide against encroachment on the track by Kedron Brook.

No register of members, as provided for by the rules, appears to have been kept. A so-called register was, however, produced. This, as it turned out, had been prepared, at the request of the auditor, in 1929, It contains twenty-six names in all as those of persons who at any time were or had been members of the club. From this document, it appears that twenty-two of these persons had paid entrance fees and an annual subscription on or before the 1st October, 1923.

This statement is supported as to twenty of these persons, nine of whom paid by their own cheques, by the butts of receipts issued, by bank deposit slips, and by the annual Balance Sheet presented at the Annual Meeting for 1924.

Beyond this twenty or twenty-two original members, no other person joined the club until November, 1925, when one new member joined. In September, 1927, another joined. Since that date, only three new members have been added.

There are at present nineteen financial members.

Of the twenty-six persons who at any time throughout the history of the club have been members, eighteen appear to have been present at various times at annual meetings.

No attempt appears to have ever been made to increase the membership. After the first year, the committee appears to have been annually re-elected as prescribed by the rules. The attendance at annual meetings only once reached eleven, being generally ten, nine, or even eight. The quorum is eight.

The original committee, first nominated in 1923 by Burke, and renominated by him at least in the two succeeding years, has remained unchanged throughout, except for the substitution of successors to two members, one of whom died and the other left the State.

Meetings of committee have been held more or less regularly over the whole period, and an annual meeting has been held in each year. Minutes of these meetings have been preserved.

So far as documentary evidence is concerned, there is nothing to show that the vendors have ever attempted to control the actions of the club in matters other than those reserved to them under the agreement.