JUDICIAL COMMITTEE BLUNDERS

NZ Truth, Issue 1301, 20 November 1930, Page 15

JUDICIAL COMMITTEE BLUNDERS

GOT SIX WEEKS FOR WRECKING DERBY

MAURICE HOLMES SHOULD HAVE GONE OUT FOR SIX MONTHS

AFTER THE RACE WAS TIME TO ACT

(Prom "N.Z. Truth's" South Island Trotting Eepresentativei) When the judicial committee of the Metropolitan TrottingClub saw fit to give Maurice Holmes six weeks for wrecking the Derby field the verdict could not have been more ridiculous had it decreed that Holmes was m future to be allowed a sawn-off shotgun to assist him m bringing down what he desired.

DRIVING the favorite, Arethusa, m the three-year-old classic, Holmes was responsible for the bringing down of three horses, and, though it was not intentional, the fact remains that the smash occurred. Holmes, as the culprit, should have been made to pay, but something saved him. Any other driver would have been outed before he was an hour older, but Holmes was not disturbed till, that evening. It took the judioial committee ] six hours to finalise an inquiry that should not have lasted a sixth of that time. i However, it was evening before the! bright boys of 'the committee decided that Holmes was guilty, but apparently there was tacked on' to the verdict a rider recommending mercy, for that is the only explanation to offer for the ridiculous sentence imposed.

Holmes was driving Arethusa, which filly is owned by H. F. Nlcoll, president of the Trotting Conference. He also had the drive on Wrackler, m the same ownership. The sentence made Holmes' miss the concluding day, but he will be free to climb m the cart for the Christmas meetings, and will probably be at Alexandra Park to drive Wrackler and Arethusa m their Auckland engagements. If Holmes was guilty of the offence, and the committee found him guilty, he deserved a stiff punishment. Such ridiculously lenient sentences as this will not put down careless driving, but on the contrary are a direct incentive to carelessness and even deliberately foul driving. Tne judicial committee of the Metropolitan Club, m saying six weeks instead of making the penalty fit the crime, has made itself the laughing stock of the trotting world. I