RACING IN WARTIME.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 218, 13 August 1940, Page 4

RACING IN WARTIME.

DECISION WITH GOVERNMENT. AUCKLAND, Aug. 12. “I do not intend to express any reasons which may suggest themselves a.s grounds for continuance ol racing in the Dominion during war,” said Mr O. Nicholson, in his presidential address to the annual meeting of the Auckland Racing Club. Mr Nicholson said that any question as to the advisability of the curtailment or suspension of racing during this period must be decided by the Government and should be left to its untrammelled decision. The Government was fully apprised of all circumstances connected with the sport of racing in the Dominion, and, if after mature consideration it thought that exigencies connected with the Dominion’s war efforts required or demanded that there should be curtailment or suspension of racing in the Dominion during the period of the war, then the club would uncomplainingly accept the position and loyally support it in whatever was desired in this direction. So long as racing was permitted, the club would endeavour to carry on the sport with the same liberality as had been shown in past years, and the committee fervently hoped that public patronage of future meetings would be such as to provide a substantial annual profit to the Government’s War Expenses Account. No major works on the property would be undertaken during the war, but every effort would be made l>y the committee to conserve the present strong financial position, so that when peace was decla-red these works might be vigorously proceeded with. The club facedYhe future with every confidence, as it was able to meet out of its resdurces any contingencies which might arise.