AN ADMIRER OF THE MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10782, 2 June 1911, Page 1

AN ADMIRER OF THE MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION.

To the Editor. Sir, —-In my humble opinion, and I venture to say in the opinion of every right-minded person, the Oamaru Ministers' Association was perfectly justified in passing the resolution it did respecting the action of. shopkeepers who closed their premises on two half-days so that the totalisator receipts of the recent race meeting might be. swelled. The Association would have been lacking in . its duty had a vigorous, protest not been, entered. It used' to be that racing haid the more lofty purpose of being a sport- that did good by fostering the breeding of stout, fleet, and sound thoroughbreds, but in New Zealand the tiakling totalisator has long ago usurped this latter high motive. Those who assisted to make the recent, meeting of the. North Otago Jockey Club the financial success that - it was were assisting not to improve the quality of thoroughbreds, but rather to bring it down, and in this regard the Club stands convicted oil its prograriime, as being among the worst offenders in the Dominion, because shortdistance races favor the breeding of weedy, speedy, squibs. In giving such prominence to the ridiculously shortdistance races that are a blot 011 the programme, the purpose of the Committee may be served in obtaining large fields, the public are given a more extensive choice of liorses on which they ran lose their money, consequently heavier totalisator investments are made, and here is the crux of the whole trouble. The stamina of the thoroughbred has gone down before the idol of the totalisator. I sincerely trust that when the report of the Racing Commission appears that recommendations wili be found dealing in the most drastic fashion with programmes- framed on similar lines to that of the N.O.J.C. That- I am not altogether alone in the view I take regarding what I stigmatise as being totalisator flutters, I enclose a clipping from a southern paper: "Taking out the two hurdles races tlig average distance of the remaining races on ths Oamaru programme was just- five and a-half furOn the first day there were two four, one five, one six, one seven furlong, and one mile races, while on the second day there were one halfmile, three five, one six furlongs, and one mile races, certainly not a- programme to encourage or. improve the stamina of our thoroughbreds."—l am, etc.. REFORM.