STRATFORD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 14398, 5 January 1911, Page 7

STRATFORD.

(By Our Resident Agent.) Jan. 4,—The active members of tho Racing Club are beaming with satisfaction over the result of the meeting, and well they may! As the culmination of a long series of successful gatherings, it just about gives the club their fine properly entirely clear of debt. No other local institution can for prosperity hold a candle to tho racing show. Nor is it undeserved, for the dnh officals undoubtedly do their level best to minimise tho evils that unfortunately attend “tho sport of kings.” Their very success is establishing a name for clean running seems, however, to have had the effect of stimulating that passion for the unearned increment that is at the root of the evils in question. In tho course 1 of tho two days nearly £15,000 was put i through tho totalisator, and although wo may congratulate ourselves on the ; fact as' evidence of there being plenty j of money about, wo cannot deduce from ' it that good sense is on the increase, j It is also something more than a coin- i cidence that along with this seeming I abundance of money for pleasure, there ! is, for the retail and wholesale trader, [ as great a difficulty as over in keeping ■ his book debts within reasonable com- | pass. February 2 has been fixed ae tlto , date of the annual excursion to the breakwater beach. Our committee has tried hard to induce the railway powers to put a train on to enable the Huiakama, Huiroa and Douglas kiddies to join, but without success. The authorities say tho excursion crowd is big enough already. Our December rainfall was 6.33 inches, an extra bountiful supply of the essential element. For the year tho total was 82 inches, which exceeds tho average by 10 inches.