FORBURY PARK TROTTING CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 59

FORBURY PARK TROTTING CLUB.

ANNUAL MEETING. There was a full attendance of members at the annual meeting of the Forbury Park Trotting Club last week. The president (Mr B. S. Irwin) occupied the chair. MOTIONS OF SYMPATHY-. Before the 'ordinary business of the meeting was proceeded with the chairman made reference to two deaths during the year which affected the club. The first of these was that of Mr H. Brinkman. Mr Irwin said that the late Mr Brinkman had been handicapper to the club for many years, during which time he had been a personal friend of trotting men all over New Zealand. The club regretted his death very deeply, but they would only realise the full extent of their loss whet, they came to replace him. The speaker said he knew Mr Brinkman was not infallible—no man in his position could be—but those who complained most a' - ays admitted that he carried out his duties as a man of honour. The club extended its deepest sympathy to his widow and relatives. The second death to which the. chairman referred was that of Mr T. T. Wilkins, who had been a loyal supporter of trotting for - many years as an owner, a driver, and a rider. He asked member's to stand out of respect to the memory of the deceased, and to carry a motion of condolence with the widow and children of Mr Wilkins. •’ The usual tributes were paid to the memory of each. ■ . RACING COLOURS. The adoption, of the annual report' and balance sheet were moved by the chairman, and seconded by Mr T< T, Ritchie, and carried unanimously, j , ; ; f ' Speaking to. the motion for the . adoption of the report, Mr R. S. Black brpught, up s . the question of the : colours worn by riders and driver*. He pr»»

iuced a Metropolitan Trotting Club race book which showed that four horses in one race were being run under the same colours. Good judges of horses, he said, might know an animal irrespective of colours, but to the average man the riot of colours was very confusing. Both owners and punters were affected by an inconvenience which could easily be eliminated. He said it was time they ignored the sentimental ideas of trainers on the subject of colours and instituted a Do-minion-wide system that would make this aspect of the sport consistent. They could have the first horse -with black, the second with white, and so on. In that way they could make the sport attractive and induce more people to invest their money on the totalisator. They had to consider the average man and increase the popularity of the sport as far as he was concerned. The chairman said he was glad the matter had been brought up. The position was now slightly altered. At one time colours had to be registered and a horse had to be raced under those colours. The Trotting Conference had now consented to an owner _ racing under his trainer’s colours. Having, by this concession, gone halfway, there was no reason why the conference should not do the job properly and carry out the suggestion put forward by Mr Black. Mr Black later moved that the committee should go into the question of the revision of the colours system, and urged the universal use of the cardinal colours to avoid confusion. He suggested that a recommendation to that effect should be sent to the conference. The motion was seconded by Mr J. Carter and carried unanimously. MORE RIGOROUS STEWARDSHIP. Mr W. D. Easton, speaking to the report, said that there was a way in which the stewards could do mote to help along the sport of trotting than they were doing at present. They should keep a much tighter hold on the racing. At the last summer meeting there had been two very glaring cases of inconsistent running that had been allowed to pass unchallenged. He considered that the stewards should have demanded an explanation from the men concerned. It was only by the exer-

cise of the strictest supervision that they could induce in the public that confidence ill the sport without which they could not be expected to help the chib by put- [ ting their money through the machine. He mentioned the names of the horses in | question, and said of the first one that i he did not think a worse case of inconsistent running had been seen on the : course. The stewards should have asked for an explanation and thus satisfied the public that they were looking after that sort of thing.— (Loud applause.) , VOTING BY .PROXY. Mr C. A. Moss, said that at the last meeting’ he had introduced the question of changing the existing system of voting to abolish voting by proxy. He had had a large following in his move, and had only withdrawn his motion on getting an assurance from the chair that the matter ■would be looked into by a ’special committee and considered at a special meeting that would be convened within six months. Twelve months had now elapsed, and there had been no special meeting. Would the chairman explain why his assurances had not been fulfilled? Mr Irwin explained that the committee appointed for the purpose had met and considered the question very fully, but in spite of the fact that there were 14 members of the committee no better system of voting could be found. At every turn they were confronted by some objec- ■ tion. All the suggested systems were 1 found to have some objectionable feature worse than the worst in the present • method. The committee, therefore, decided that since it l ad nothing to tell the members of the club it was not worth while spending a good many pounds on calling a special meeting to make that announcement. At the time he had thought with Mr Moss that some better system could be evolved to do away with the canvassing that was undoubtedly done under the present circumstances, but he had since been forced to admit that there ..as no better way of doing the job. The explanation was considered entirely satisfactory by the questioner and the meeting as a whole. ELECTION OF OFFICE-BEARERS. Mr B. S. Irwin was re-elected president unopposed, and there was only one nomination for the position of vice-president, that of Mr T. T. Ritchie, who was declared elected. Mr J. A. Hopcraft was reappointed auditor for the ensuing year. The election of a committee of four'was awaited with great eagerness by the meeting. Six scrutineers were appointed, but even this large team could not make the result known for two hours after th n y commenced counting. The result of the ballot was as follows: —Messrs R. M. Greenslade, 373; W. J. L. Coughlan, 312; R. Telfer. 224; L. E. Barrett, 223; W. Quirk, 219; H. Halliday, 143; H. Archbold, 107. The first four names are those of the new committee. The scrutineers found it necessary to make three counts before the final result could be made known. GENERAL. Mr A. M. Hendy wrote offering to present a whip for the rider or driver of the greatest number of winners for the season.—The offer was accepted with thanks. In reply to a question from Mr E. Chilcott, the chairman assured the meeting that under the present system of voting no unfinancial member could record a vote for the election of committee members. v Mr Black made a suggestion that it two mile and a-half race should be included in the Forbury Park programme. Racing clubs had these long races, and he could not see why' they should not have at least one race at trott ng meetings. The suggestion was put in the form of a motion by Mr J. Carter, and Was put. to the meeting by a very diffident chairman, who said he thought two mi'es quite enough for a good horse.—The motion was defeated. The question- of the guarantee given by the club in respect to the tram to Forbury' Park was brought un, the chairman stating that the club had received an. account from the corporation for a siim purporting to be the loss suffered by.the council as a result of the laying down. of. the line at. the time the club wanted it, .The .whole.:matter was- at present very much in the'.air, as there was some/, uncertainty? about' the acciijracy of the account.' He could not say' yet now much the club would have to pay.'

As far as he could se" Tramways Department had expert six days of race traffic to pay io. line’s expenses for the year.—Mr Ha liday pointed out that this was not so. The guarantee concerned the working of the line over the 12 months.—To this Mr Irwin replied that the account they had received made mention only of the receipts from the traffic for six race days. They were not credited with the ordinary revenue nor with any receipts that might have resulted from other functions held at the park. In addition to this, the council had broken its agreement by putting on buses in opposition to the trams. The whole m.-.tter would have to be gone into before there was any question of paying the bill they had received. The foregoing discussion arose as a result of a misunderstanding, the speaker, who was considered by the chair to have introduced the subject, was in reality drawing the attention of the chair to the excessive fares charged on race days. He thought Is fid was far too much, unless the club was getting some cut out of the taking?. After several vain attempts to get the meeting to consider his subject, Mr E. Chilcott made his point clear, but nothing was done in the matter. Mr H. Divers moved a hearty vote of thanks to the chairman and the committee for the manner in which the affairs of the club had been administered during the year. He considered that it was due largely to the excellent work done by tin stewards, all of whom carried out their several duties admirably. Mr Irwin said he was glad to hear the stewards mentioned, as they had given him very loyal support, and made his term of office much more pleasant than it would otherwise have been.