RACING IN WAR TIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16282, 15 July 1916, Page 9

RACING IN WAR TIME.

SIR G. CLIFFORD'S VIEWS. VALUE OF THE SPORT. IBY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.) | WELLINGTON, Friday. I.N" the course of his presidential address at th© meeting of the New Zealand Pacing Conference this morning, Sir George Clifford said that in carrying on racing during the war they had added to other utilities much benefit to the defenders of our liberties. The example of King George, the Earl of Derby, and other British sportsmen was quoted as proof that continuance •was wise. The demand for a cessation of racing was a cry of the uninstructed. Those who repeat it little understood the vital importance of a supply of suitable horses for defence purposes ; nor could they realise that the thoroughbred horse was essential to the production of such horses. If the point needed insistence, he could quote Lord Kitchener. Except where there may be interference with railage of troops or munitions, racing was kept going both in Britain and Germany. The lesson taught by war went, to the very heart of the value of racing, and explained in part why many private individuals were maintaining expensive studs to secure for the British Empire advantages gained in foreign countries by costly establishments at Government expense, ft further pointed to the necessity for the proper conduct of a sport which professed and served such high aims. Nowhere in the world was racing better • conducted than in New Zealand. The absence of proprietary clubs, the devotion of all profits to the sport, the cleansing influence of the totalisator, and the searching investigation of disputed decisions liv an elaborate system of impartial tribunals, al! contributed to this result. They had alsn rendered possible the magnificent response | of the racing clubs to the financial needs of the time. Sir George Clifford quoted S the following fibres in this connection: - I Voluntary contributions. £45.942 10s 5d : • taxation paid to Government. £260.669 16s i lOd : total, £306.612 7s 3d. Was that the record of a useless frivolity ?