TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1905. THE JOCKEY CLUB,

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 12863, 23 May 1905, Page 4

Taranaki Herald. TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1905. THE JOCKEY CLUB,

Those of our readers who periisejldj / tjie , report of- th<s annual meeting of the »• Jockey Club in Saturday's issue must • have been impressed / with two thingsr— the absurdity of the situation on Friday night, when a , deadlock occurred, \ and. | the necessity; for a cojmpleto , reformation of / th^ affairs • ofi | the / • Cluib. O£ the necd| for drastic changes the President offered abundant evidence in his address. He confessed that the Club has steadily retrograded as rco-artls its finances, and that if this goes on the Club's assets will gradually disappear. 'We, do not think, • however, that he' put the saddle" on the right horse when he endeavoured ,to explain how this had coftne about. , 'He flamed "the new committee for extravagance, and said it was a mistake to increase the stakes. Let us see how. this works out. The new committee has been guilty o$ extravagance, he says, in many directions, and !it | has added '^225 Jto the lstak.es/— and '"the year'.s •operations resulted in a deficiency of ,£261 2s 4d. The oldj committee was, of course, not extravagant and it did not pay such high slakes I—and1 — and its last season, 1903-4, \ resulted! inj a

rather greater loss than the new committee's lo&s in 1904-5. Therefore, if the stakes are still further increased and even greater extravagance is practised, next season's operations ought to give better results. Seriously, we believe that more liberal management I—not1 — not extravagance — would tend to improve the Club's financial position. Instead of trying to curtail advertising , expenses the Club's meetings should be morq extensively brought before public- j notice. Ratlicr than, reduce the luncheon bill and give away fewer complimentary tickets the Club should be more liberal in' both directions. Petty meanness in such matters is altogether out of place on a racecourse. Liberality brings its own reward in increased popularity, and consequent larger attendances and better totalisator investments. If the new, committee, had ai little more freedom in its ( management the results would be likely to be much better. The greatest "extravagance" was increasing the- stakes, and that resulted in a record number of dominations, which is the true test of the wisdom or\ , otherwise of the committee's action. If, however, we cannot agree with Mr Samuel in blaming, the new committee for tiie > position of .the*** Club, we are quite in accord with him on. the question of obtaining a course out| of town. <He has, in fact, at las,t come to, our way of thinking: of^ twenty years}' -ago. There are many reasons why such a change would be beneficial, scarcely one why it should not. From the Club's point of ,t, t view it 'would be beneficial because from its own freehold, property the Club could effectually exclude the bookmakers and thus its revenue from totalisator investments ', would be several hundreds a year better. It couM obtain < a course for, say, £25 a n acre, instead of racing, as it does,, on laird worth from .£3o° to an acre,- which is the value of that portion of the il present course which "belongs toi the Chub. The attendance of the public would probably be larger if the course? wasf situated alongside the railway a few niile^ from town, for even if a few townspeople were kept away by the distance ; more people would come by train from the south.'.' From the point. of view of other / societies and; clubs the move would be an admirable oneThe .'Agricultural Society J for instance, is at present trespassing,on the good' nature of the Jockey CluT^ aftd'it canhdV put up any •buildings of its own on the. racecourse. The football, cricket, , and hockey' clii'bs are in a similar position, i They, cannot > erect stands or , decent dressing rooms, 'because buildings would interfere with the view of the racing. As» for the town, we ido not think it would matter much if the raceoou'rse was fifty miles away.( The race meetings faring a number of visitors — some desirable ,and%others the very reverse*— 'but the best of this traffic (, would} remain. Altogether ,it seems to us that L it would fee a desirable thing for ail concerned if tilie Club went out , of , town for a cdurse. As for other changes, the "new blood" o n the committee appears to have worked in the right direction, aiwl - if Mr Samuel cannot see his way to continue in the position of president now that "his old friends have left," why, there are others. Surely the very eixistence of the Taranaki Jockey Club, an institution od| forty years' standing, is 1 not to foe imperilled because the present » president} declines to take the position again. Since ! matters have not, on his own showing, been .any too pleasant in the Club recently, and especially since an. improvement in the Club's affairs is a result of the new committee's first year's management, possibly a change in the presidency might not prove a bad thing for the Club.

In usually well-informed, political circles in Dunedin the opinion is lield that ihe general election will take place towards- "the close of November. The Hon. Hall-Jones received deputations at Auckland on aManday, and visited the Magistrate's Court,, in connection with th« -movement for a new bitilding, tlte need, of which Was pointed out to him by Judge Kettle and members of the legal profession.

The Mayor, reported at the meeting of the Borough Council, held on Monday night, that he 'had made iurtiher advances to Sir Joseph WarH in respect ,to placing the borough loan of £37,000. Previously .when . Sir vTosepb was! approached on! tbo . frniatter tho money market was tight, but as things, had improved lately the IMayor said ho "took the opportunity to montio* tho jnatter again. Sic Joseph Lad telegrapiheH that in a conversation with some friends while in Melbourne there was a tendency to accept "the money, but as the details in reference to the Borough position had been mislaid, a, definite reply could not be given. The Mayor said he had supplied Sir Joseph with full information^