SPORT OF RACING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3136, 14 July 1917, Page 8

SPORT OF RACING

ADDRESS BY SIR GEORGE

CLIFFORD

Addressing tho Boeing Conference in Wellington yesterday, Sir George Uitford (president) dealt with subjects ot interest to a very large eection u tho public. •"'No portion of the community, he said, "is more thoroughly loyal to the needs of tho Empire than tho supporters of racing. None would more willingly make sacrifices contributing in any do«reo to its welfare or to tho military exigencies of the time. The recent curtailment of racing days would have teen accepted without a murmur if any practicaL reason for it had been submitted to us. None have been and in this country nono exist. Our request for a statement of them was curtly refused. In truth, the antagonism ot life-long opponents of racing, who ii'eanly utilise the nation's crisis to further private prejudice and animosity, clono accounts for the deprivation of a national public relaxation peculiarly Loathful to mind and body at the present juncture. . The action of the authorities, thus based on political pressure, appears mere blind imitation of a similar course adopted elsewhere under wholly dissimilar circumstances. 11l Great Britain the exclusive use of railways must often, be urgently and unexpectedly demanded for purposes of military transport. Who can say the same of cur local system: Mr. Lloyd George, as late as tho 30th of last month, informed his audience at Dundee that the restriction on horser.icing is entirely a matter of the extent to which it interferes with war activities, thus forecasting the later decision of the British War Cabinet to permit the resumption of racing under insulations adapted to tho local necessities as to transport, etc. . . . "Our most effective help in war activities is in tho dispatch of successive, reinforcements, and in our financial übilitr to maintain them. From this standpoint is it wise to sacrifice the ungrudged revenue from tho racecourse and tho railway, consequently imposing equivalent and moro oppressive taxation elsewhere? "Tho amount of voluntary donations by racing clubs since the commencement or tho war has amounted to. about JSOOOO, besides the surrender of courses and buildings for uso by tho Defence Department, notably in the cases of the Wellington, Manawatu, and Wairarapa Clubs. 'The taxation payable for Uio current racing year will not be less than .£IOO,OOO. "The immediate harm which racing can do to recruiting or to the proper employment of labour is negligible, if existent at all, but the perpetuation el a breed of horses adapted to military requirements is a very vital necessity. If Britain alone spent up to a certain date more than twenty million pounds in the purchase abroad of horseflesh for cavulry, artillery, and transport, the upkeep of the sources of supply is patently a matter of national urgency. Tho most bigoted traducer of racing cannot honestly deny that the qualities of bone and courage of tho thoroughbred horses are essential for these purposes. Eaci'ii'i!, in fact, is a sort of munition factory kept afoot in all countries to insure an iquipment indispensable to the mobility of armed 'forces. All European Powers havo at immense cost recognised the importance of this precaution, except England, which country aloue of the great Powers has relied upon individual enterprise. We in New Zealand have ideal climatic advantages for the development of the thoroughbred horse. . Do not throw away your opportunities. Our Government might well spare us its present discouragement. Nay, rather, it should stimulate the pastime to which our armies owe so much. Let the authorities wholeheartedly help us to pare away the excrescent abuses against which we are perpetually contending, let them foster pnre racing to the utmost of their power with a- foresight equal to that of our German foes and our French friends. Tho reward will come without fail if ever the demon of war revisits this muchtried world. The turf is truly a precautionary munition factory of essential value, needing all the continuous care and skill which competition engenders.

"As a side issue I may comment <m the fallacy of the constantly repeated assertion that short-distance races have deteriorated the stock. lam far from advocating their predominance, but they are not necessarily tho refuge of weeds and of the scourings of the training {racks. The hoi'3e that runs six furlongs under the highest pressure in the ff.stest time is often of too massive a typo to succeed at two miles. Take tho winners of the New Zealand Cup and of the C.J.C. Stewards' Handicap from ISOO onwards as a test, nnd most judges will concedo that tho shorter distance dinners would approach more nearly to Hie standard for breeding remounts.

"A special emergency meeting of this conference was held in Wellington on April 23 last to consider proposals of tlio Hon. tho Minister of Internal Affairs lor reducing tho number of rating days. A committee was then constituted, which submitted to the Minister a scheme for carrying out proposals against which they felt constrained to protest. Your committee was received with fairness r.nrt courtesy, and a compromise was effected, which resulted from Rood feeling en both sides, and which illustrated tho willingness of sportsmen to ' undergo sacrifices if cnlled upon, even when the benefit to tho causo of the country appeared to them at least dubious."