RACING COMMISSION.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17225, 16 August 1921, Page 6

RACING COMMISSION.

EXTRA DAYS DEPLORED. A discussion on tho report of the Racing Commission occupied a considerable, amount of the time of the meeting last night of the Council of Clhristian°C6ngregations. The matter was introduced by the Rev. J. J. North, who submitted the following lengthy resolutions on behalf of tlje executive of the Council :- "That tho Council of Christian Congregations exceedingly regretß that the report of the Racing Commission contains a 6Uggestion for increasing tho number of days on which the totalisator may be used by 28 The Council recognises that the report serves a useful purpose in suppressing superfluous clubs in congested centres. But it regards the proposal to create ID new clubs, entailing as it will large capital expenditure and still larger extravagance through the machine, as exceedingly unwise. The Council believes that the amounts .invested in tl:e totalisator, which have risen 600 per cent, in tike last few years, reveal a wastage and an extravagance such as the country cannot endure. The Council protests against any increase whatever in totalisator permits being granted." "The Council shares with the Commission in their surprise that the title deeds of at least some clubs seem to allow of a division of assets among club members when a club is wound up. The Council calls the attention of the Government to this anomaly, which seems to violate the condition which is supposed to underlie all licensed racing in the Dominion." Mi- North said that the Council had not as yet had an opportunity of thoroughly discussing tho matter^'but tho resolutions framed by the committee were unanimously arrived at, and were j framed on very broad lines. The report of the Commission, which had travelled over the country at great expense, was pregnant with important issues. The most outstanding was that 28 mpro racing days had been added ta the 251 previously existing, and that such a decision lhad been arrived at at such a time in the nation's history., when there was such a' slump and stringency,' must be regarded as exceedingly unwise. Mr North went on to comment on how, the racing people . "had taken tho Government by tho throat." They had been able to bully it into doing what they wanted before, when the war began, and now they had cowed and baffled the Minister in charge of the report, who had said that th« provisions 'would bo (held valid untfj Parliament met, and they had raised Cam in such a manner that he had climbed down and agreed that the matter should be held over. ' 'Mr North proceeded that in 1910 less than £2,000,000 passed through the totalisator in JNew Zealand, ■an amount which was then regarded as appalling extravagance Now it was estimated that £10,000,000 was "blown in" annually. An army 0 f race horses was Kept up, the housing conditions of which were batter than those of the poorer human beings, wnile the horses lived on the best of oats, etc., and to look after them there was 'another army of stable hands and other attendants. It was a marvel that so small a country could stand up to such a direct and damaging increase in expenditure as the report recommended. The report suppressed some superfluous clubs, but at the same time 19 fresh permits were recommended, which meant that 19, districts would have to go to the expense of setting up racecourses, erecting palatial'grandstands, and generally provide elaborate facilities of a day's orgy of racing. Sober-minded citizens were anxious to see that things weffe' stabilised, and the report was not reassuring to them. The /Rev. F. N. Taylor moved that the words in the resolution referring t 0 the entailing of a large capital expenditure should be deleted, but tho amendment was. opposed ■by the Rev. T. Fee, who said that, without pronouncing, on the right or wrong of betting or racing, the Council had a perfect.right to comment on the unwisdom of spending in such a way at such, a time. The amendment was lost, and the motions carried without dissent, The Ven. Archdeacon Haggitt then moved: "That, with a view to helping people to realise the evils of gambling, a sub-committee be appointed to make a concise statement on the subject, such statement to be submitted to the Council at its next ordinary meeting, and if approved, to be published in the Press; that such sub-oommiftee consist of the Revs. R. Milne, J. Paterson, J. J. North, and the mover." Denunciations, said Archdeacon Haggitt, were always dangerous, and the Council, if:it wished to,make any progress as a body should be able toproduce good'reasons for.doing so ; There was, however, an undoubted failure to realise the evils of gambling. Bishop Julius held that the subject was a very debateable one, and _it might not be advisable if or an opinion to be passed by men who knew very little about, and came into very little contact with, racing. He did not oppose the idea, but he was ''not very happy abbut it." .;. • • : The motion was carried:unanimously. "I hope," Bishop Julius commented, "that this' Council' will help forward righteousness and truth, rather than denounce wrong. lam sure that is the true work God wants •Ug to do."