THE GIMCRACK SPEECH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2396, 1 February 1900, Page 40

THE GIMCRACK SPEECH.

I mean the main speech at tho hundred and thirty-third annual dinner of the York Gimcrack Club, established in 1/67, to perpetuate the fame of the racehorse Gimcrack. The dinner was held in December last, and the main speaker was the Right Hoh. James Lowther. He reverted to the subject of fees .■which he brought so prominently forward at the jockey club meeting on October 11. Briefly put, his point, as he from the first explained it to the jockey club, is that it is the duty of the executive responsible fov the conduct of a race meeting to provide their officials, and remunerate them in an adequate manner. Going info figures to some extent, Mr Lowther stated that the fees paid •by owners during the past ssoson under Rules •179 and ISO (for ptakeholding, entry, and •weighing), amounted to upwards of £12,000, of which in no cape do the weighing fees go to the clerks of the scales. Moreover, of the^e ifees oboufc 78 per cent, is received at meetings that do not come under the regulation which restrict* profits (to shareholders and executive) to 10 per csnt. Mr Lowther resents the idoa of rich companies drawing fees from owners for xhe payment of officials of the companies, and, no doubt, he retains something of an oltt conservative dislike for limited liability companies m connection with racing at all. The example of the Manchester Racecourse Company, where the shares were at a premium of 400 per cent., and the course has been as good as sold for £250.000, eeems rather appalling to a sportsman of the old school, but, ifc should never be forgotten that but for the limited liability companies and enclosed courses racing in the vicinity of large towns would have .become out of the question. Suburban meetings were, in fact, dangerous to attend, whereas now there is seldom any trouble whatever at Alexandra Park, Sandown, " Kempton, Lingfield, Hurst Park, or Gatwick. The element of business in connection with sport does not seem altogether harmonious, but in practice it is generally lound that what is best paid for is best done. We have often thought, remarks the Sporteman,' that the conduct of .T-'^ing would be vastly more satisfactory if the stewards of the jockey club were to appoint a well-paid director-general, of acknowledged position and ability, who should give his whole tiiiia to the management of racing affairs apart from the purely secretarial duties which are the proper function of Messrs Weather- j by, io whose fee=, by the way, in connection i with llig Calendar and Stud Book Mr Lowther might, in pursuance of his subject, have very properly called attention. It must net be imagined, by the way, that because Mr •Lowther attacked the present system of fees Jie therefore wishes to make the position of the numerous able officials less remunerative to them. As lie has previously pointed out, he has in connection with a- north country meeting been a party to adding salary over and above the regulation fees. All that he means is that owners should be relieved of these .petty charges, and we do not think that if this were done the shareholders in now flourishing companies would find any appreciable difference in their dividends.