AUSTRALIAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1894, 9 March 1888, Page 23

AUSTRALIAN.

(Sportsman.)

Wm. White, the jockey, informs us he has left Mr R. Phillips' employment, as that gentleman has not sufficient riding at his weight. White has a big New Zealand record, and open for engagement to ride at the V.R.C. Autumn meeting. He can ride 7st 31b.

All readers of history know that the most tyrannical acts recorded therein have been perpetrated by weak kings or weak governments until tyranny and weakness have become regarded as almost synonymous terms. The old fable of King Log and King Stork is one which also has its moral, and while a firm hand and a strong rein are essential to check abuses, care must be taken by legislators, either for the nation or the turf j that fresh legislation must be for no particular class, must be devoid of favouritism, and calculated to afford the greatest good to the greatest number. Were Ito assert that the prestige of the committee of the Victoria Racing Club is as great now as it was at the time when it took upon itself the control and regulation of the turf of Victoria, I should make a statement which migh*? be open to question. There were giants in those days, and in men like Captain Standish, A. K. Finlay, and and Richard Goldsbrough, we had men who thoroughly understood the work required at their hands, and who possessed clearness of perception and business acumen which ensured public confidence. These men are lost to us, and though some of those who acted with them remain, the committee has, of late years, on all possible occasions declined fresh responsibilities, and has gradually limited its functions to the providing of good stakes to be run for, the reception of a rich revenue from the ring, and confirming the sentences and disqualifications imposed by the stewards of racing clubs and companies whose programmes appear in its calendar.

The role of King Log is one which is easy to play, but has its marked disadvantages, and chief amongst these are the necessity of curbing the license to which it gives rise, and the amount of resentment and disaffection which arises whenever the milder, the fatuous, policy is exchanged for a more repressive system. There can be no doubt in the minds of any thinking man that of late there has been too much racing in the immediate vicinity of the metropolis, and while the public and the press have been alive to this fact for the past year, and its regulation has been repeatedly urged upon our turf legislators by most of our leading sporting writers, our turf Solons failed to take action to check an ill which could easily have been nipped in its inception, but has now grown difficult to cope with, as vested interests have arisen, and large sums of money have been expended in erection of race stands and fencing of racecourses ; besidos which, catering and bookmaking concessions have been granted under the impression that the policy of non-interference was a fixed one. Rumours have arisen that at last our turf legislators have awakened from their lethargy, and have determined upon drastic measures of reform. The sleeper suddenly awakened, as a rule, acts hastily and rashly. I trust such conduct may nob be laid to the charge of our turf rulers. The matter still they are called upon to legislate for is one which must be dealt with calmly and judicially ; and it should be dealt with solely as a question of turf policy, and without any regard to its bearing on he prosperity of any club, even though that tlub be the Victorian Racing Club itself.