WAR AND SPORT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8203, 28 July 1915, Page 3

WAR AND SPORT.

RACING IN NEW ZEALAND

A PLEA FOR ITS CONTINUANCE

THE SPHERE OF THE TROTTING * HORSE.

At the annual meeting of the Ashburton Trotting Club last evening the president (Mr li. F. Nicoll) had something to say in regard to the continuation of racing during the present days of stress throughout the Empire. He said: —"Sportsmen, the world throughout, have proved themselves be worthy of their name, and have been foremost amongst those to volunteer for service. -Also', the Racing Clubs have been the most liberal donors to all war funds and patriotic movements. As the ' Guardian' pointed out in yesterday's leader, tho sporting spirit prevails to a greao extent amongst our gallant lads at the front, and the majority of these same lads would always be on the gui vive for a race or sports meeting. It would bo a sorry day for Great Britain and her' Dominions if racing, boxing, and allied sports were curtailed or broken on the wheel of narrow-mindedness, and misunderstanding^ It may be stated that racing has been considerably cut down in England, but the reason given' by tho British Government was\vthat the race excursion trains interfered with the military traffic requirements, and on the other hand it can be pointed out that racing in Ireland and Scotland has not been interfered with and that racing in France and Russia is being continued, even though to a lesser extent than usual. The only solid reason

for a curtailment of racing in the Dominion would be that it was interfering with recruiting or was in any way affecting the patriotic mind of the nation, and as neither of these conditions obtain for the present, there should be no infringement of the people's sport, which has its value based on the solid rock of British temperament. There appeared a paragraph in last week's papers stating that someone had requested the Government not to provide trotting-bred

horses for military purposes. If any such request.was made by a responsible person, it should be promptly refuted. The trotting-brod horses of to-dny have proved themselves in every useful field. Whether for lortg journeys, for speed, as weight-carriers, or for endurance, they can hold their own with any breed of light horses, and we know that many of our officers specially selected trot-ting-bred horses for their mounts when leaving the Dominion for Egypt." (Applause.)