BOYS IN RACING STABLES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12665, 19 January 1912, Page 6

BOYS IN RACING STABLES.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir, —lf I may be permitted to do so, I would like to draw attention to some remarks made by Mr W, A, Barton, S.M., in connection with the trial of a. youth named Harry Francis Letter, charged with theft, the trial being reported in your issue of yesterday. In the course of his remarks the Magistrate stated that! the boy was employed in a racing stable ; that the surroundings were not very defljrable for a boy to be brought up in, and that on being granted probation he would probably return to his old haunts. 1 would like to say, in the first place, that the boy has never been employed by me, but as the owner of a raoing stable I strongly object to his Worship's remarks. Are we to infer that employment in racing stables is in the ordinary course of things likely to make a boy become a thief? J can read the remarks in no otherv sense, and if that js th© meaning intended I wish to say that the remarks are quite uncalled for, and are an unjustifiable reflection on the Jiorse-owners and trainers of the district,

A boy of bad character is no more tolerated in a racing stable than in any other walk of life, and as a trainer myself I wish to protest against the inference arising from his Worship's remarks.* — I am, etc., GEORGE JONES.