Truth WARNED OFF!

NZ Truth, Issue 252, 23 April 1910, Page 4

Truth

WARNED OFF!

Published every satubday Mobning at Luke's Lane (off Mannebsstbeet), wellington, n,z.

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SATUBDAY, APRIL 23, 1910.

What is an "Undesirable"?

In the days that have gone by racing i clubs m New Zealand used to have things I all their own sweet way, and were a law unto themselves and derived big yields from the "tote." Then, the "walfc- j ing tote" was quickly spotted, and -a posse of private 'tecs, would warn him off, and all sorts, of prosecutions followed, with the result that the .race-course un- j desirable, was heavily 'fined and often j imprisoned. Times are out ot joint now ! with racing clubs. They do not seem to { be ' able 'to call their souls or tfceir ] courses their own, and the once autocratic race-course 'tec. has fast become like Othello — his occupation is gone. Now everybody knows what sort of a gathering a race-meeting is responsible 'for. Parading the lawns are gaily caparisoned females, 'Lords, Prime Ministers, holders of political portfolios, squatters, parliamentarians, etc;, etc., not forgetting the bookmaker and his cleric, the riff-raff of the community who make a precarious' livelihood m a hundred and one ways, either by thieviitg, welshing and balancing, or tale-telling, or guessing, with the object of lightening the burden ot boodle that the "mug" may be laboring i under. And to protect the "mug," and i to give some semblance of real gentility j to the proceedings, race-course detectives | are employed and authorised by the race, clubs to warn off the course the undesirable fraternity, who are undoubtedly a pest badly requiring eradication. In the not dim past the race-course 'tec. was the bete noir of the race-course parasite, but time and a Gaming Act. have had a great deal to do .with, creating a most intolerable position. Former-' ly, it a respectable man m the community went on to the Trentham course for example, his ticket told him that he was permitted on the premises on sufferance, so if a race-course 'tec. by any freak ol a lively imagination told him he was an "undesirable" he had to accept one of two alternatives, viz.:, .stay and see the races and he prosecuted, if he was not forcibly ejected, or at once "go hence" and miss his day's sport. Even now the Wellington Racing Chib fondly cling to the. belief that as the course at Trentham is then: property they can lire anybody off the coarse. And by anybody is meant any individual who, m the mind ot a race-coarse detective, is undesirable, and who, being waned off, is a trespasser on private demesnes. • • • • ' Recent magisterial decisions m the Wellington Magistrate's Court have %■ ut quite a diffecent complexion on kWngs, and that racing club will have to J i exceedingly careful m the. future else W may buy for itself a heap ot trouble, formerly so many technical proceedings were taken for granted, but when it recently came to the point for the club to prove ownership, its authority to the 'tecs, to eject whom they thought undestraMe, and .to prove the dub's very legal existence, it was very di*cult to do so. The prosecutions for trespass on sacred Trcatham of two prominent officials of tiie deceased Miramar Pony Club was a farce, and certainly had there been a conviction on the ground that those officials were "undesirables," it would have been a sad travesty of the ideal of justice, which is too often

merely an ideal m New Zealand. "Undesirable" is an awkward sort of word, and no legal straw-splitting m the woitd can suffice to malw it mean other than that a racecourse "undesirable" is any thing else than a welcher, or thief, or a Dad egg generally. The dismissal of the cases m question must have at anyrate awakened the W.R..C. people to a sense of their position, because last Monday, at the Wellington S.M.s Court, a number of individuals were charged with trespassing at Trentham, aud the cases, as far as the prosecution was concerned, were conducted most timidly, as if implying that tbe Club wasn't sure ol its legal basis. In one case a conviction was secured, another was dismissed, and m a third the W.R.C. offered no evidence. The Club was mulct m costs, and a vague sort of idea was gathered that an appeal would follow. In these cases the usual formal proofs were waived. Plenty was heard of "undesirables," but why or how the person charged ("Truth" is confining itself to the case that was dismissed) was an "undesirable" wasn't, made too clear, excepting that • one racecourse; ',tec. muttered that another 'tec. had told him something. Happily, even where it comes to the question of giving justice ' to, a racecourse "undesirable," that sort of evidence does not carry weight m a Magistrate's Court, and, without any "defence being called for, the case was dismissed. The S.M. said that under the Wellington Racing Club law, the most respectable member of the community could be ejected on the score* of . being an. undesirable.

Where is this state of affairs going to end ? The W.R.C. charges a stiff price of admission to its course, and., the purchaser of a ticket stands liable to be ejected without even being refunded his price of admission. Certainly, if we except the cases of the two officials of the Miramar . Pony Kacii% Olub, who, aparb from their connection with a sport that was spurious,. were m every sense of the word reputable men, the racecourse 'detectives haven't/ bcea guilty of bigh-handed proceedings, otherwise we might have heard of it through the law counts. There remains, however, this much to' be said. If the W.K.C arc desirous of preventing undoubtedly undesirable individuals from trespassing on the Trentham course, let the club refuse to admit to their ground the thief, the spieler, and the gucsser. If denied admission to the course, the greedy club would, if the undesirable element gained entrance, be unquestionably right m prosecuting the riff-raff for trespass. That is the remedy. As it is now, "Truth," like everybody else, is fally aware of the fact that, so far as races at Trentham are concerned, thieves, spielers, "guessers," and the scum and scours ings of tbe gaol, .find their way on to the course, and are known to the racecourse detectives, who either wink their eye at the presence of the parasites, or' else are ignorant of what lots of other people are aware of. The whole source of the mischief is, of course, attributed by racing clubs to the Gaming Act of 1908. Under that Act, boo'<ma'<crs are legalised, and racing clubs rvo ■.obliged to issue licenses to bookmakers. In the guise of bookmakers are notorious thieves and balancers. The reputable and solvent layer of odds is penalised and made to bear tne burden of his welchmg brethren's rascalities. The clubs issue, indiscriminately, licenses to any so-called bookmaker able to pay the license fee. They have licensed thieves and spielers, and the production of a license is sufficient to silence a racecourse detective, no matter how desirous he may be of ridding the course of the rogue and the rascal.