EASTER RACES

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1913, Page 3

EASTER RACES

*!?>♦ fci- — QUESTION OF SATURDAY

RACING CONFERENCE'S AFFIRMATION. BY TELEGRAPH—PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON. July 19. "Should racing be allowed on Easter Saturday?” was a question which was decided in the affirmative by the Racing Conference yesterday. The subject was introduced by Mr Hazlett (Otago country clubs), who moved :—"That the resolutioninstructing tlie Hates Committee not to allow the Saturday before Easter Sunday ns the day of any race meeting be rescinded.”

Among other arguments advanced by the mover was one that he had spoken to the clergymen of “three leading denominations,” and they had told him there could be no objection to racing on the clay mentioned. The Tuapeka Club, at whose request he had brought the matter forward, had raced on Easter Saturday for 30 years, and it would come as a hardship if the club had to abandon its Easter meeting next year (when the instruction to tlje Dates Committee would come into force). Mr Nolan (Taranaki country clubs) opposed Otago’s suggestion. Easter week, he said, was a “holy week.” and it hurt the feelings of a lot of people if races were held on Saturday. “It may be all right in the country,”' he added, “where there are no churches and no God.” (Delegates: “Question.”) Mr Hunter, M.P. (Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club), said that Easter Saturday was a day that should be occupied with other thoughts than those associated with the turf. The Conference should not go back on the attitude it had previously taken up, which had pleased a great many people all over the Dominion. Several delegates urged that there were no “conscientious objections,” and there was no reason why racing should not 'be carried on. One delegate said that football and other pastimes were indulged in on Easter Saturday, and why not racing? The President (Sir George Clifford) said he saw no reason to alter his opinion that racing should not he held on Easter Saturday. As he had stated in his opening address, he desired that sport should be regarded as so inoffensive that clergymen would be seen patronising their racecourses. The carrying of the motion would mean the arousing of antagonism to the turf on the part of those who had conscietious convictions on the matter. The motion was carried by 18 votes to 13, only a bare majority being required. A remit to the same effect by. Auckland country clubs was withdrawn.