CURTAILMENT OF RACING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17092, 25 August 1917, Page 11

CURTAILMENT OF RACING

COLLECTION OF PROFITS. GOVERNMENT CONTROL URGED. Tho troubles of tlio little . raoing olubs which have lost their permits in tho recent curtailment of tlio sport wero tlio subject of an interview between representatives of these olubs and tho Minister of Internal Affairs on Thursday. One of tho conditions of tho curtailment was that tho clubs which continued to race should, from thoir profits find sufficient' money to defray tlio liabilities of the clubs closed down. The delegates asked Mr Russell that tho Internal Affairs Department should collect tho money and (jlistributo it among the clubs. If this wero not done it was feared that tho profits would not ba available to help the cluibs closed down. They also asked that clubs whioh wero continuing to hold racing, but which had lost some clays, should be helped by tho clubs making profits.

Tho Minister said this, was one of tlio most intricate and difficult matters he liad ever had to deal with. It had always been his desire to protect the interests of tho smaller clubs, becauso ho had rooognised all through that the outcry was not against tho small clubs, bat against tho clubs in the larger centres. The objection was to tho amount of totalisatof gambling, and not to racing per se. If ho had had his way, all the profits tihat were made by racing clubs throughout tho period of the war would havo been pooled in the Internal Affiairs Department, and tho proceeds, after paying all tho costs of the scheme, would have been devoted to patriotic purposes. That schema he was not able to carry through. Tho matter now rested entirely with tho Racing -Conference and tho Trotting Conference as a combined body, and the deputation would havo to look to this body for tho payment of tho claims and the settlement of all grievances. The Government ooald not interfere without legislation, and there was not the slightest chanco of_ legislation being proposed. Sir George Clifford had promised that tho Conference would consider claims for tho assistance of clubs which might make losses on account of losing some of their days, and he had no reason to suppose that tlio members of the Racing Conference—a body of honourable gentlemen—would not fulfil their obligations.