SPORTING ITEMS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9359, 7 March 1896, Page 4

SPORTING ITEMS.

" Weekly Press and Referee." | It i* very cany to that the. Government is getting into a complete iimddlt; over U:e is.jue of totnlisalor permit <■ Without refciencc lo the coJ.::vdliii«; bodies, clubs luive approached tho Colonial Secretary and obtained permission for the u.sc of the maehiiK., permission which, in some casee, would not have been granted had guidance been placed on the properly constituted authorities. In order not to create unpleasantness the Metropolitan Clubs have allowed to proceed without protest several of the gatherings for which the use of the totalisator was obtained by back stairs influence. And now, when the number of permits allowed by law is almost exhausted, we find the Premier venting his wrath on the Wellington Racing Club because, forsooth, it is unable to favour one of its minor clubs at the expense of another, when it is impossible to favour both. The bombastic utterances of the Premier in referring to the matter, in answer to a deputation from one of the small clubs, is not what one would have expected from him. Simply and plainly put, the Legislature decreed that the use of the totalisator must be curtailed by the is_ue of only two-thirds of a previous season's permits; if not distinctly understood, it was implied that the Racing Conference, at which town and country clubs were fully represented, was the body to say what club 3 would have to do without the machine. And this was a right and proper decision to have arrived at. It would have been, on the face of it, an absurdity to have delegated the power otherwise. And if in allotting the gatherings tnat should have the totalisator, several long-standing and progressive clubs were left out in the cold, it was inevitable that some hardship would have to be inflicted. The Conference, however, did its best in endeavouring to deal fairly and in the interests of racing, when conflicting interests were brought up. •

"The late Colonial Secretary bad left to the Metropolitan Club the task of making the reduction, and this work had not been done in a satisfactory manner. He could not agree with the allotment of licenses made by the Metropolitan Clubs. Taking, for instance, the provincial districts, they would see that there had not been a reduction of one-third of the racing clubs' meetings. The Metropolitan Clubs had taken the licenses of the trotting club 3 and allowed the racing clubs to remain as the year previous. It was a case of shedding their brother's blood to save their own." Such are words attributed to the Premier. It is very likely the honourable gentleman does not agree with theallotmentmadebytheMetropolitanClubs, but he should really allow them to know the racing requirements better than he. The ' Government has quite enough to do without desiring to undertake the regulation of the turf. And the Premier talks at random when he says the Metropolitan Clubs have filched the trotting licenses and so allowed racing to remain as the year previous. The deputations to him asking for permits is a direct contradiction to this. It may be correct to say that clubs who foster trotting as well as racing have been treated as racing instead of trotting clubs, but beyond that there has been no departure by the racing clubs from the direction in .regard to curtailment.

There is a difficulty in following the Premier when he remarks—" Racing appeared to be turning into nothing but gambling, and this waa a state of things that the Government must not encourage. The Metropolitan Clubs having failed to make a fair distribution of tho licenses available, the only thing remaining was for the Government to take the matter in hand ; and had he occupied the position, of Colonial Secretary, he would not have allowed matters to go so far as they had gone. The Wellington Metropolitan Club was trying to usurp the functions of the Government in regard to these licenses, and as the Government was the responsible body in the matter, and not the club, he was not going to allow it." That gambling and racing are irrevocably associated is most, true, but that the sport is being made the mere medium of the vice in this colony is without the slightest foundation. As a matter of fact the curtailment of racing was resolved on, to curb gambling. The Premier is most illogical. As for the racing authorities trying to usurp Government functions, they have, on the contrary, been endeavouring to assist in strictly carrying out the behests of Parliament. The Premier got very dictatorial as he proceeded on lecturing the deputation at which the quotations above made formed part of what he said; and in talking of the license that he had issued to the , Masterton-Opaki Club is reported as having made use of these words:—" The Metropolitan Club, because it wanted to give the license to tbe Otaki Club, had put such conditions on the Masterton Club as would prevent its holding its meeting. He was not going to allow thissort of thing; and since the Metroptolitan Club for tha district had said that it was not necessary for the Masterton-Opaki Club to have a license, he would go further and say that it was not necessary for any of i the meetings in the district, and all the meetings would now have to be held without the totalisator. This was the stand he was going to take up if he heard officially what he had seen stated in the newspapers about the attitude of the Metropolitan Club in regard to tbe Masterton-Opaki license. As to the paltry revenue, the Government would lose by adopting this course—he would rather be without it than encourage gambling." The head of the GoverniA*_t is doubtless a very great man; at the same time it is not for him to decide whether racing shall or shall not have the aid of the totalisator. The people will not tolerate such assumption of power. The sentiment about the Qoven__„it rather losing the paltry revenue from the totalisator than encourage gambling would be very fine if it were not palpably a straining after effect. It is altogether too thin, for no one knows better than the Premier that no laws that can be passed can put a stop to what has been aptly termed " the ruling passion."

As we have often before remarked, it is a thousand pities for the sake of racing that the Government of the day will not refrain from interfering with matters that should, in the interests of aU concerned, be left to the management of those who can be expected to know something of what they are dealing with. If Mr Seddon could have only refiained from meddling with small details —as a man in his position should have done ; if he could have only brought himself to saying to these deputations, "No, I don't know what 'colour' you are, I am going to carry out the Act, aud in the permit question be guided by those who know something of the subject—your representatives at the Conference," he would have taken a dignified stand that would become one who should be the fiist to set a good example. Unfortunately Mr Seddon seems to have been afraid of the growling of a few of his supporters, henco the muddle he is getting totalisator affairs into. There's not the _lif_htea£ doubt about this—that in order to please political supporters the Premier has got himself and his Government into a

tank's and, having lost his temper, made reiiurks about a body of men which on calm reflection he would no doubt be sorry for. It is a great pity for the Sport of Kings th.it nil tai-; trouble about tho totalisator should have been caused—and through the weakness o? a man v.c all expect to have s-)i;ic backbone, at !";::.t at- times. Oi course there is no gainsaying this, that, should the totalisator be abolished, it would deal a very severe blow to racing throughout the land, and all .sportsmen would bo sorry to sec the machine done away with. And wluit would be the result ? We should at onco be flooded with the worst class of spielers from the other side, parasites of the Turf that are only waiting a chance to swoop down on some happy hunting ground. Wo are fairly free in most parts of the colony from this undesirable clement, but once abolish the totalisator, and we are afraid we should not long be able to make that boast. There is no doubt the totalisator is the fairest means of speculating on horse races, and it only takes cash, which means that speculators cannot go beyond their depth as in the case of betting on credit with the bookmaker. There are many reasons in favour of maintaining our present fair mode of speculation. But there is one i thing that we should like to see—the machine under the supreme control of a nonpolitical body, a representative racing board i such as was the last conference. Another thing we should like to see is this —the Government carrying out Sir Robert Stout's Gaming Act. If Mr Seddon would see that his—or ours, the people's—proper officers made some real attempt to put down illegal betting, he would be doing the country a real service. We have, and so have other papers, pointed out over and over again the amount of "totalisator odds" betting that goes on on racecourses and in betting shops—which the Gaming Act was principally brought forward to suppress and makes punishable by fine or imprisonment — but no earnest steps have so far been taken by the authorities to carry out the law. It is the facilities afforded the youth of the place by these betting shops that respectable people are crying out about. Anyone can go to them and invest from a half-crown upwards on almost any race in the colony, and what have been termed the "stay at home" backers, the gamblers pure and simple, keep the proprietors of these gambling houses in a flourishing condition. This is the "fungus growth" t the Gaming Act was designed principally to i suppress and which we should like the Premier to pay a little attention to. There have been two sentences of imprisonment for betting totalisator odds—one in connection with the Wellington R.C.s Steeplechase and Autumn (combined) meeting last season ; the other of recent date, so late as February 27th, when one McClusky was arrested, as detailed in another column, on the Manawatu racecourse for laying totalisator odds, with the result that he was sentenced to one month with hard labour. If the Government will put politics out of the question, leave the granting of totalisator licenses to a thoroughly representative racing body, and make up their mind to sweep away totalisator betting and gaming houses, they will be studying the best interests of the people of all " colours," and at the same time doing a great deal in the way of assisting pure sport.