RACING PERMITS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 August 1921, Page 3

RACING PERMITS.

OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED. INCREASE,

Dunedin, August 2,

The Dunedin Presbytery has appointed a deputation to wait on local members of Parliament before they prodead to the session, urging their opposition lo increased totalisator permits as recommended by the Gaming Commission. PRESS OPINION. The Dominion says: Whatever may be said for or against the report of the Racing Commission,-there are two considerations which the Government cannot afford to ignore. The first of these is that to give immediate effect to the report as seems to be the intention would be a piece of ’wasteful folly. At the present time it would be a positive scandal to encourage the diversion of capital and labour to the construction of new race tracks and racecourse buildings. Y6t if the report is to be immediately acted on and new clubs encouraged in different parts of the country, this must be the inevitable outcome. . . . The other consideration is that the Prime Minister promised that Parliament should have an opportunity of discussing fhe Commission’s report before it was given effect to , , , and the promise still holds good. Some of the oldestablished clubs which it is proposed to close down have commitments ahead of them, and it is probable that even if Parliament endorsed the Commission’s findings in respect of these it Would have felt it only right that they should be given a year’s grace. The position of the Minister in charge of the Department is an awkward one, owing to the late session, but the safe course seems to be to leave matters as they are, and not to attempt to give effect to the Commission’s recommendations until Parliament, has been afforded the promised opportunity of discftsslng' them. Editorially, the Hawke’s Bay Herald” (Napier) says: The ■ proposals of the Racing Commission are not likely to go unchallenged. We have rarely heard of any more high-handed action than Is recommended by their recent report. The Coimmission was originally set up to inquire into the question of-permits, and no doubt had power to make any further suggestions that they might consider for the benefit of racing. But what they now purport to do is fo tell the people of the country just where and when they must race, and with a stroke of the pen to render valueless a good deal of property, and to throw out of work a good many peoiple. There is no question of reform about the Commission’s report; they, only mention one club about which they have any serious complaint, ajid they have not the courage to say plainly that it, ought to be closed. Their recommendations are ostensibly tb reduce the expenses of racing; in 'fact, they serve to increase the monopoly held by the larger clubs and to disfranchise a number of clubs of considerable standing.