The Star. TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1927. TROTTING AND RACING MUST NOT CLASH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18063, 25 January 1927, Page 8

The Star. TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1927. TROTTING AND RACING MUST NOT CLASH.

It would he ridiculous to go on with plans for a race meeting at Riccarton during the Duke of York’s visit now that arrangements have heen made to run a trotting meeting on the only available day at Addington. There is no doubt Ihat a trotting meeting, conducted as trotting meetings are conducted in New Zealand, would he a very pleasant novelty to the Duke and Duchess, and there is no doubt, either, that the crowd would enjoy itself at a trotting meeting just as much us it would at a galloping meeting. But of course, the idea of promoting a race meeting was to convert it into a social function, at which, no doubt, the Duke and Duchess would have been able to meet a great number of people. It seems, however, that this idea will have to he abandoned, as it would he quite out of the question to hold both a trotting meeting and a race meeting on the same day. Moreover, it would he difficult to attract anything like the best class of horses to Riccarton for a one-day meeting, especially as it would fall very close, to the date of the Wellington Racing Club’s Autumn meeting, whereas the best class of trotting horses are already in Christchurch and will certainly he available for the two days’ trotting meeting, for which the Minister has granted a totalisator permit. It is very unfortunate that this bungle should have occurred, hut at all events the trotting authorities should not he penalised after the part they have played in the negotiations. The proposal to hold a Royal race meeting was made on December 9, and approved hv the Reception Committee a day or two later. Cabinet, on December 24, refused lo grant a special totalisator permit, and on December 29 decided to adhere to its earlier decision. The president of the C..T.C. indicated clearly enough that it was unlikely that a meeting would he held without a totalisator permit, and if any negotiations for a change of dates were under way the public were not taken into the club's confidence. At all events there was such a long delay on the part of the C.J.C. that the trotting people had every reason lo suppose that the idea of a meeting had heen abandoned. They were resourceful enough to plan a change of dates, and the Minister himself, speaking on January 18, remarked that he could not see the wisdom of holding two meetings on the one day. We are in entire agreement with the Minister on the point, and as the trotting people have found a way out of the totalisator difficulty, the Reception Committee might very well join forces with them.

Nobody can complain UiaL-woman is not getting her share of notice nowadays. We do not mean the notice that is invited by short skirts anti shingled heads, but real international notice, of the kind that induces France to think of her as a conscript in the world war and to mobilise her nationally for the next great upheaval. But, curiously enough, there seems to he no definite international agreement as to her importance in the scheme of things. Mussolini, for instance, lias heen indulging in a little hate recently. “I have told my subordinates,” he wrote in an article for the British Press a week ago, “ that I must never see a woman in the Palazzo Chigi. They interfere with efficiency and cause delay. They do not appreciate the businesslike character of work, intiioducing by their presence an obligatory deference which is unnecessary in the company of men.” And Sir William Arbuthnot Lane cannot really abide them either, for while lie i’mds them “charming and useful,” he thinks they arc the cause of all the misery, degradation anti disease of mankind, because they teach their children wrong habits and feed them wrongly. And herein is something of a compound paradox. Mussolini is intent on restoring the glory that was Rome, without the assistance of the Roman' matron; M. Paul Boncour has visions of Amazonian conquest by France, while Sir Arbuthnot Lane suddenly finds-that the hand that lays the table is the hand that rules the world. Perhaps they arc all right, in parts. The proper study of mankind is man, but the world’s permanent enigma is woman.