COORSING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13830, 16 February 1909, Page 3

COORSING.

•SOUTH v CLUB. The annual meeting of the South Ciiiueroury uoursing uiut> was held m the Stone Stables last night. J.'res t no: -vir li. Howard (presiuent, 111 the cnairj, Messrs U. I'. uerrie, T. McVYiiirter, \v. Connelly, A. \Villis, J. shewan, E. Goodman, H. G. Webb, A. Eden, G. Taylor, I'. i<ox, C. K. ii_err (treasurer) and J . H. Rodgers (hon. secretary). The annual report stated that the club had by no means a successful season. Three plumpton meetings were held, but none of them proved a success financially, although the last meeting upon which the committee hoped to make a profit, just managed to come out without a deficit. The club had been unfortunate in several respects, the loss being largely due to the heavy expenditure incurred in holding the Timaru Challenge Stake, which alone was valued at £l6O, and also to the heavy mortality among the hares, not only by numerous kills at the meetings, but through a large number of deaths by drowning at the time of the heavy flood. It would be seen by the balancesheet that coursing was an expensive sport, and unless the club was better supported there was little doubt that its life would be a short one. Had it not been for the guarantors at the bank, who were chiefly members of the committee, the club would, ere this have been extinct. The coiiirilitt.ee hoped that plumpton coursing was not about to undergo such a calamity but that the club would take a new lease of life, and it was their firm intention to economise as much as possible during the coming season and by securing additional support they hoped by the end of this year to see the club one of the foremost clubs in the Dominion. The Centre of tho New Zealand Coursing Association was now at Oamaru and Mr R. French had been appointed as the club delegate in that town. It had been suggested by the escape committee that the brush fence be erected as previously, the fence giving the hares a better opportunity of getting into the escapes that the present method offers. The balance-sheet showed that the club had a small debit balance, and the secretary stated that the estimate of the value of tho club's property had been put at a figure lower than the probable value, so that the position of the club financially was really better than it seemed. The election of officers was proceeded with as follows: —Patrons, Messrs A. S. El worthy and W. Hay, re-elected; President, Mr T. McWhirter; Vice-Presi-dents, Messrs P. Elworthy, W. Burgess, E. Guinness, R. H. Rhodes, Dr Thomas, S. Hanson, J. Hole, R. Roth-

well, P. Reilly, \V. Anderson and J. Gale; Hon. Secretary, Mr J. H. Kodgers re-elected; Treasurer, Mr C. E. Jverr, re-elected; Committee, Messrs Howard, Gerrie,. Taylor, Webb, Connelly, Willis, Eden, Goodman, Shewan, W. Anderson, Grant, P. Lynch, It. Porter, T. Kearns, R. Marsh. The president asked the members if they had any remarks to make with reference to the future running of the coursing meetings.

Mr Goodman said he would like to draw attention to the escapes; as they were now, they were not efficient and at the last meeting several hares got back to be killed by the dogs. The president .pointed out that the matter had been referred to in the annual report and 110 doubt the new committee would take the necessary steps to have the matter rectified. Mr ICerr said that in future the meetings to be a success financially must be run on different lines; at present the stakes were too big and it had been found that it was impossible to make the meetings self-supporting as they should be. They would see that there had been a great falling off in the attendance of the public, in 1907 the takings at the gate were £BB 6s 6d, whilst in 1908 they had fallen to £2B 12s 6d. Then again in 1907 £4O 19s had been spent for hares, while in 1908 it was £54 lis. There had also been a £lO drop in subscriptions. Mr Shewan said he was surprised tq see so few at the meeting, if only the owners of dogs had turned up there should have been forty or fifty present instead of merely a poor thirteen. Messrs McWhirter, Rodgers and Kerr returned thanks for their election to office, and votes ol' thanks were passed to the retiring officers. It was decided that the annual subscription should be 10s as before. The meeting then terminated. At a committee meeting held after the annual meeting it was agreed that the club apply to the New Zealand Coursing Association for April 29th and 30th, as tlie dates for their first meeting this year. It was resolved that a Maiden Stake valued at £4O be run for dogs that have not won more than £7 10s in any one meeting.