THE STONEWALL JACKSON—SCRUTINEER CASE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9944, 25 January 1898, Page 2

THE STONEWALL JACKSON—SCRUTINEER CASE.

To the Editor.

Sir, —I request the insertion in your paper of the following few lines explanatory of some plain facts in connection with the late Stonewall Jackson — Scrutineer case. As I was not called on to give evidence in the case before the Association, my connection with the matter has been misconstrued 'in many quarters and I wish to place myself and others in our proper situations instead of those we now occupy, owing to the hasty and I think erroneous decision of the ultimate Court of Appeal in trotting disputes. (1) It is reported that I entered a protest against Stonewall Jackson. This is not the case. I was on my way to the Stewards' room when several of the public called out to mc to enter a protest to which I replied " No." I then met Mr Rattray, who observed, "There is no occasion for" you to protest, as I am calling the Stewards together at once." I naturally supposed that C. O'Connor had reported the matter to the Secretary and Stewards and that the enquiry was the result of that report and the officials' own observation. (2) I have known C. O'Connor for a very long time, and I have stood alongside him ou many occasions when he has been starting horses, and I distinctly assert tbat in dispatching each animal from the mark he has invariably used the words "go" or "go on." (3) I took no active part in the matter from first to last, as I knew the Stewards of the C.T.C. were a respectable and practical lot of men, and I was willing to leave the affair in their hands, with every confidence that their deliberations would result in an unbiassed decision being given. As far as the Association is concerned, I did not for a moment think that a legal luminary would have been employed with a body of witnesses for the express purpose of discrediting O'Connor's evidence on which of course the whole case hinges. If I had con-ceived-the idea that such a line of procedure would have been followed, I should have been able to produce any number of wellknown respectable riders and drivers of trotting horses to testify to the fact that when starting O'Connor always uses the signal "go"or "go on."—l am, _c. Frank MrjLHOLUNr*, Owner of Scrutineer.