RACING AND WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 138, 13 June 1941, Page 6

RACING AND WAR

is a virtue which is expected of public men in time of national crisis, the courage to face a given situation, however unpalatable, and to reach a decision which may be unpopular, but which is for the good of the nation. A call for a minor exhibition of this very moderate form of courage has arisen over the racing situation in New Zealand, but apparently the Government is not only unprepared to give a lead, but is so timorous that it would deny others the right to express an opinion. The matter of the restriction of racing should be dealt with at the present session of Parliament; it was introduced yesterday, and Mr. Webb gave an immediate exhibition of runaway tactics, which indicated that tne country has small chance of getting a decision from the proper source. Parliament. Mr. Webb said that he did not wish to express 1 an opinion whether reduction was right or wrong, and it was the duty of the president of the Racing Conference, he said, to consult with the conference before making any recommendation. Mr. Webb apparently has had no orders from the Parliamentary caucus, and therefore he cannot make up his own mind or frankly declare it. But it is deplorable that a Minister who finds himself thus circumscribed should wish to impose equal shackles on everybody else. Mr. Elworthy is fully qualified to speak on the need for reducing the racing programme; more than that, it was his duty to give a lead to the conference, so that its members might not have the matter suddenly sprung upon them without that opportunity for prior consideration which has now been given. Mr. Elworthy had the courage to give a badly needed lead. The Government should not have waited for that lead, but when it was given it was its obvious duty to face the fact that production and war work in the Dominion are being hindered by the multiplicity of racing days, and to at least examine the lead given in Australia, where for a year racing has been drastically reduced.