OBITUARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17572, 24 June 1925, Page 6

OBITUARY.

H. BYRON MOOREVETERAN RACING SECRETARY. The death of Mr IT. Byron Moore which was announced by cable from Melbourne this week, removes the A'et • ran racing official of Australia, lie was eighty-six years old and he had bee.i secretary of the Victoria Racing Club for forty-four years when he relinquished the position last month. The an nouncement of his retirement, which he has enjoyed for so brief a period, was made by the committee as follows: - j It is the desire of the committee of the Victoria Racing Club to relieve Mr Byron Moore of the heavy work in connecting with the administration of the office, and the long, tiring meetings of the committee . At the same time, the committee recognise the great service which he has given to the club in the l ist and desire still to have the benetit of his advice, especially regarding arrangements and improvements at Flemington for the conduct of. race meetings and comfort of the public and members. He has al-o given close personal attention to the distribution of the Benevolent Fund, and knows and visits all the unfortunate people who receive benefits from the fund. It is proposed that Mr Byron Moore be appointed to the club for life at his present salary, and that lie be made a life member of the club. In view of the change which is thereby entailed, a secretary will be appointed forthwith, and applications for that position will be called for at a salary of £ISOO per annum. A great deal could be written ol the great work Mr Byron Moore has accomplished for the. club, and it is the intention of the committee to place on record before the members, when he is proposed as a life member, an outline of that work, which has extended over a period of twenty-five years. lltc late Mr Moore came, to Victoria vcnty-thrcc years ago and entered the La.,©.- Department. lie rapidly rose to a high position in that branch ol Ihc Government service, and in 1873 WcS appointed as-istant surveyorgonerai. riv years later lie terminated his connection with the Lands Department and began business as a broker and financial agent, and inaugurated the oi l Melbourne Exchange, of which he acted as manager for many years. At about the same time Mr Moote formed the Melbourne Electric Light Company, whose first contract was the lighting of the Eastern Market. Another project launched by him was the Telephone Exchange Company, and as a result of 1 1 is foresight and enterprise Melbourne was endowed with a telephone service two years before one was commenced in London. I low Mr Byron Moore became secretary of the Victoria Racing (Tub can best be told m his own words. "On the d-ath of Mr R- C. Bagot,’ he said. " applications were called for the position of secretary to the Victoria Racing Club; this was in ISBO. I had onlybeen on a racecourse once in my life, and had no penchant for racing, and nothing was further from my thoughts than being the secretary of a racing club. Mrs. Bagot, the widow of lit : late secretary (we were neighbours), came to see my wife, and said she hoped I would apply. 1 raid I knew nothing about racing, but she said, ‘ No more did Bob’ (her late husband). However, my. wife said she so wis lied it, and asked me to put in an application, if only to please her. But I said that supposing they gave it to me. v.hat was I to do? ‘ Oh.’ she replied, * they are sure not to do that.’ Depending on her judgment, I put in an application of twelve words, merely saying I was an applicant, and forgot all about it. One day the then overseer. Jonathan Brown, a little man who had ridden a? postillion for Lady Franklin in Ilobart, dropped into my office in a mysterious way, and said, ‘They’ve guv it you.’ ‘Guv what?’ T said. lie I said, ' The secretaryship.’ I never had a greater surprise in my life. Now what was to be done. I had got together a good financial business. I had induced many friends to put their money into the Telephone and Electric Lighting Com panics, of which I was a I director and I could not abandon them, and I had my Exchange to keep going. However, relief came in •he official letter oi appointment, in v;hu:n it was said that I was appointed on condition that I held no other positionHere was an opportunity to gracefully withdraw. So I went to see Mr Attenborough. a member of the committee and the club solicitor, and laid the matter before, him. telling him I was a director of the Telephone and Electric Companies and lessee of the Exchange. ‘ Those are not appointments.’ he sari. ‘ \Ye want you. so just come along. It would not be wise for you to back out.' Having a great opinion of his judgment, i accepted." To quote his own words, Mr Moore was “ not a racing man ” in the ordinarv acceptance of the term, but as the manager of the largest racing concern and carnival in the Commonwealth he had no peer. Mr Moore interested himself little in racing generally, concentrating his whole energy on the business aspect (if his position. Through this fact a story gained wide circulation that Mr Moore during his long association with Flemington had never seen a race for the Melbourne Cup. The story, however, was an exaggeration. ns Mi* Moore, when questioned on the subject, said that he had seen several Cups run and won. Throughout his long connection with the club Mr Moore never missed a Melbourne Cup meeting, and he never made a bet at Flemington. Mr Moore’s first Melbourne Cup was won by Mr < ’. M Donald's Zulu. Since then the stakes distributed by the V.R.C. have multiplied nearly tenfold, while racing has become much cheaper for owners. In the 18S0S 1 season Mr Moore was appointed secretary, the added money given by the club amounted to £IO.BOO. Fur the present season it will amount to nearlv £IOO.OOO. These figures arc striking and are another tribute to Mr Moores capabilities. It was Mr Moore who first introduced the system of registering bookmakers. Australian soldiers who fought in Gallipoli, Palestine. France, and other theatres of war will always entertain grateful feelings towards the A ictoria Racing Club and Mr Moore personally. During the war £102.119 was raised by the club for war funds, and the parcels of comforts sent to the various fronts by the club proved most welcome to the soldiers. The onerous work of selecting the comforts, packing, obtaining freight, and despatching them to the forces was personally undertaken bv Mr Moore, and he carried out (his heavy self-imposed duty very well. The chairman of the Victoria. Racing Club (Mr L. K S MackinnonL at. the annual meeting of members in 1919. in paying a high tribute to Mr Moore s work in this respect, said that the club would always feel great gratitude towards Mr Moore for his untiring efforts on behalf of the soldiers at the front by which their lot had been made a little

icss barren. lie was ever ready to help in the cause of charity, and it was mainly through his efforts that the Victoria Racing Club benevolent fund for the assistance <>f racing men in necessitous circumstances was established. Mr Moore made only one trip home to his native land-m 187? when he was elected a member of the Royal Geographical Society. The Victoria Racing Club has had only two secretaries in its history, extending as it docs over a period of sixty-one years, Mr Bagot and Mr M being the officials.