MINISTER'S ACTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 185, 8 August 1927, Page 10

MINISTER'S ACTION.

CONDEMNED AS "MEDDLING." '. A SOUTHERN VIEW. At the last Racing Conference the dates committee recommended that the ><latc. October 24 (Labour Day) ehould be lallotted to the Waikato Raciiig Club, and »11 lie conference by a very large majority :! confirmed tins (« a ys the Christchurch I-Prv""). The Waikato Hunt Club, how-

over, desires this date, and some months ago it induced the Minister to promise that he would issue it a totalisator license for that day. The Minister \vas,j of course, acting within his rights—nobody, so far as we know, can interfere with his allocation of totalisator permits. But the Racing Conference is within its rights in allocating the dates for meetings, .and it will be within its rights if it insists that the Auckland District Coinmittte shall stand by its refusal ito approve of the Hunt Club's programme The club, that is to say, will have a totalisator permit, but will not be able to hold a meeting without placing itself joutside racing law. Before the dates committee the claims of the two clubs! were fully stated, and the decision of the dates committee in favour of the Racing Club loaves nothing more to be said on that point. The question at issue is the action of the Minister. He knew perfectly well, when he promised the Hunt Club a totalisator permit for October 24, that the club to which that day would bo allotted had still to be effected by the Racing Conference. He says that'ho must issue the permit to the Hunt Club in order to avoid the imputation of bad faith. But before he exposed his good faith to this peril he ought to have made sure that he could Inledgc it; and obviously he was not in ia position to pledge it. * Obviously, also, jit is not tlio business of the Racing Conjferenee 1o lot its decisions be forced by a Minister's mistake*. There is no excuse whatever tor the Minister's action in giving a definite undertaking to issue a permit to a club for a given date, for in doing that he was usurping the right of the Racing Conference to fix the dates of meetings. And in 1925 lie told the dates committee, which waited upon him and Mr. Coates, that he would not interfere with them. Here are hi;., words: '"J can assure the dates committee that I have no desire to interfere with them. The committee can make its own dates and stick to them, and as far as dates are concerned I have no desire to interfere. If I did so I would only lie bringing trouble upon my own head." Now, there lias been in the past some difliculty concerning the share that the conference should have in allocating totalisator permits, but at the deputation in 1923 a perfectly good understanding satisfactory to both parties was come to: they would co-operate. There has never, however, been any question as to the authority of the Racing Conference to allocate dates; there could not be, so long as the conj ference as at present constituted exists. 'With this the Government cannot interfere without taking over the whole business of racing, and making it a State department. The member for Ohinemuri, who has championed the Hunt Club, has been endeavouring to obtain parliamentary support for the Minister's action, and perhaps ho will get the sup- ■ port of those members who are not i friendly to the good government of ! racing. But there will be general public i resent incut of auy attempt by the politicians to meddle with a matter that concerns the conference's domestic authority.