THE NATIONAL PASTIME

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 28, 16 January 1911, Page 7

THE NATIONAL PASTIME

! VALUE OF HORSE RACING.

! SIR GEORGE McLEAN’S VIEWS.

i Sir George McLean, the popular i president of the, Dunedin Jockey ! Club, journeyed to Invercargill in. j order to open the new grand stand j erected by the Southland Racing Club. In the course of his speech Sir George referred to the progress made by the Southland Club F which has been very marked in recent years, and then went on to speak in defence of racing and the i totalisator. Sir George McLean referred to the fact that the totalisator is the sole medium of betting in France, and is the most popular i medium of wagering in South and l West Australia. In France the totalisator provides vast Government | studs, which supply stallions at a I nominal fee to farmers, and the > result is that the French have one |of the best-horsed, if not the besthorsed, army in the world. In the same way Germany also makes racing provide the foundation of horsing her vast army. New Zealand, per medium of the totalisator, is doing the same thing (perhaps uni consciously), but there is no doubt that the light horses found in the Dominion are of a very high quality, and this is entirely due to the fact that private enterprise has, through racing, been able to import valuable stallions from England. New Zealand and Australia, have supplied India with horses for many years past, and continue |o do so at the present time. The Racing Conference, said. Sir George, have drawn up a code of rules which provides for every 7 crim** : committed against honest sport,. I and he claimed that racing in New, Zealand was as honest and proper as in any part of the world. Sir George also referred to the reduction of racing, and pointed out the unfair method of calculating* i the number of days on which racI ing was held. He drew attention to j the fact that many race meetings i were held on the same day. He felt quite certain that the Southland racecourse would not be kept exclusively for racing, but, owing to. its easv distance from Invercargill, would be used for other purposes. He quoted from a circular issued by Sir George Clifford, president of the Racing Conference, to prove that the number of days’ raoingheld bv registered non-totalisator clubs had not increased, and that the gambling per head worked out at less than a penny per race. He exhorted his hearers to do everything with their power to encour-' age the noblest of all pastimes, and work for the retention of the totalisator, which did not ask anyone to gamble, and for the encouragement of horse-breeding. He concluded by declaring the course open. At the conclusion of Sir George McLean’s remarks Mr. W. T. Hazlett, president of the Southland Racing Club, urged all sportsmen to assert themselves at the next election, by voting for those who were broad-minded enough to know that racing was the national pastime, and consequently entitled to proper recognition and freedom from vexatious interference b.v those who were opposed to racing. Air. Hazlett cited the fact that the late King Edward VII. was a great sportsman, and that the present King was following in his father s footsteps. He concluded by calling for three cheers for Sir George McLean, and his hearers made a hearty response, and followed on by according the same .mark of esteem towards Mr. Haz- > lett.