RACING IN WAR TIME

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17290, 4 October 1916, Page 6

RACING IN WAR TIME

The little discussion on racing profits which is reported in another column is bound to create interest and possibly rather extravagant conclusions may bo drawn in some quarters. There is a disposition among people to look to racing clubs for special contributions to the extraordinary financial requirements of th© State, and wo cannot bo surprised at this when large sums of money are obtained through a sport that might well have been substantially reduced in war time. It cannot, however, be denied by reasonable men and women that many of those who so heartily object to "racing in w:»r time" would denounce it not much less vigorously at any other time. Our view is that a sensible reduction in tho enjoyment of racing and in the considerable expenditure involved would have been proper. It would certainly have been less inconsistent with tho gravity of the period than was the increase sanctioned by Parliament, in its first war session. The granting of additional totalisatar permits, the raising of stake-money, the accumulation of profits by clubs and the writing down of assets to absorb, some of the profits, the continuance of racing not in a smaller but a much greater .degree than before the war—these proceedings are sufficient to incur the disapproval of most sane, patriotic, citizens. Several mon quite prominent in the support and administration of racing, wo know, share this opinion, and we are surprised that their views have not found concrete expression in an appreciable reduotion of racing while the Empire is in such terrible travail. Most of tho clubs, however, have voluntarily and generously given their total profits to war funds, while the State is collecting revenue from them on a higher scale than before. As to the position of the Wellington Racing Club, our sympathies are with Mr J. J. M'Grath, who endeavoured at the annual mooting to show the club its opportunity to help the State. The club s figures reveal a largely enhanced revenue Bince the outbreak of war, and it would be idle to separate that prosperity from the fact that the course and the soldiers' training camps are in proximity. The club appears to have taken a narrow view in regard to the use of its surplus. Its prosperity is probably greater, relatively, than that of other clubs, and yet its contributions to patriotic funds are substantially smaller. In these circumstances it is rather odd to find the president suggesting that the subscriptions of all the clubs should be pooled for the establishment of a soldiers' homo in the Hutt Valley. Of course the members of the Wellington Racing Olub may do as they choose with their own money, but by comparison with the rest they certainly come out of the inspection not too well. One member was rather quaint in saying that if the club bad not lent its buildings for tho use of sick soldiers tho position of tho Defence Department would have been " peculiar." Wo should have thought the club would have been in the "peculiar" position. However, we are not particularly keen on the system of raising war money out of racing. It would be far better to have a substan-

tial reduction in the opportunities for racing, betting and enjoyment while a large part of the flower of tho Dominion's manhood is heaving the stress and strain of a colossal struggle for the country's very existence. We certainly do not think everybody should bo going about in sackcloth and ashes, but there is a limit to reasonable enjoyment of all kinds in such serious, perilous times; and that limit is exceeded on the racecourses of New Zealand.