SUPREME COURT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1831, 10 April 1907, Page 35

SUPREME COURT

BETTING APPEALS. PRESS ASSOCIATION. NEW PLYMOUTH, April 8. The adjourned sitting of the Supreme Court opened this morning, Mr Justice Cooper presiding. In the bookmakers’ appeals against conviction by the Magistrate for betting on the racecourse in December last, the appeal of Flannagan was allowed on the facts. In the case against Champion his Honor reserved his decision on an important point of law. The betting was admitted, but the point was raised by Mr Spence whether the borough by-laws, under which the information was laid, were invalid so far as they applied to the racecourse on race days. The reserve was vested in the Borough Council as trustees, but the New Plymouth Recreation and Racecourse Reserves Act expressly stated that the council had no power to make bylaws and regulations under the Reserves Act, 1885, with regard to the racecourse, the Legislature providing that this power should be vested in the Jockey Club, which alone could make regulations regarding conditions for admitting the public to race meetings. Although tlie club had not made regulations, it could not delegate its power to the council. If the borough betting by-law could apply to the racecourse during races, so. might the furious riding bylaw be made to apply, which was absurd. Mr Quilliam argued that the council had exclusive control over the reserve. His Honor, in intimating that he would take time to consider his judgment, said the question was whether the reserve on race days was exclusively ve*sted in the Jockey Club, so that it could not be considered a public place, to which the by-law did not apply on those days.