RACING COMMISSION.

Gisborne Times, Volume LV, Issue 6144, 30 July 1921, Page 6

RACING COMMISSION.

WILL REPORT BE ADOPTED?

POSITION FRAUGHT WITH DOUBT.

WELLINGTON, July 28. Most of the racing clubs and trotting clubs threatened with extinction by the recommendations of the Racing Commission are raising protests, and it is abundantly evident that there will be a keen debate when the report of the Commission reaches Parliament. In the meantime, some of the clubs are anxious to address the Minister fdr Internal Affairs on the subject at once and the representatives of the Otahuhu Trotting Club have arranged to interview him at the end of next week. The fate of the Commission’s report, when it is presented to Parliament, is doubtful. The debates in the House of Representatives last year showed that a strong body of opinion among the members was opposed £o any increase in the number of totalisator permits. It was the strength of this opposition that caused the Prime Minister to promise that the recommendations of the Commission would be subject to review by Parliament. This promise was supported by a clause providing that, in the event of either House disagreeing with the report, the new allocation of to-talisator permits should become void and the old order of things should be restored. The position now, therefore, is that the clubs that have been cut out by the Commission unay use their influence against the adoption of the report. There may be a combination of dissatisfied racing Members and anti-gambling Members against the reI>ort. Ministers intend that the matter shall com© before the house at an early stage of the session, but it cannot reach the stage of decision before October—Special.