Mid-Week Sport

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28542, 22 March 1958, Page 12

Mid-Week Sport

Mr F. P. Walsh invites unnecessary and undesirable government interference with the normal activities of citizens when he proposes that the Government should curtail race meetings and other sporting events, except at week-ends or on recognised holidays. There is little mid-week racing and trotting nowadays, except on statutory holidays. Most week-day meetings are in relatively remote districts where the people would get no racing at all unless owners and trainers were offered two days’ racing—on a Saturday and a Monday, for instance—to compensate for high travelling costs. In winter there is not much mid-week sport to attract crowds except Rugby during the brief representative season. An official ban on mid-week sport could not exclude summer activities such as bowling tournaments, which many persons enjoy during their holidays and to which some devote their holidays. A much stronger argument than any of these, however, is that the people themselves can curtail attendance at sport which affects production. Employers can grant or refuse leave, bearing in mind the needs of particular businesses. Selfemployed persons spare time for sport only at their own cost, and the time is usually made

up. Exhortation can play a part in securing harder work and more production; but economic facts play a greater part, and with these the Government is properly concerned. The Government would weaken its influence if it fiddled with unnecessary restrictions such as Mr Walsh proposes.