COUNTRY RACING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12881, 8 April 1913, Page 2

COUNTRY RACING.

QUESTION OF PERMITS

PATEA ASKS FOR RESTORATION. PRIME MINISTER'S SYMPATHETIC REPLY. (From Our Travelling Reporter.) PATEA, April 7. The manner in which many country racing clubs had their permits taken from them, was not altogether popular, and it was contended that severe injustice was done to clubs that were doing much to encourag© the good breeding of horses, whilst in addition tho centralisation of racing in the larger towns, made it practically compulsory for thxTcountry people, who liken racing for pur© sport, to find their amusements at tho bis centres. This, many consider as being manifestly unfair to country club*, and this aspect of tho position was placed before the Prime Minister (Hon. W. F. Massoy) at Patea to-day by Mr. Clark, President of tho Racing Club, when a strong deputation from.th© Racine; Club a-sked for th© restoration of the license, and Mr. Pcarce, M.P., in supporting tho request, pointed out how unfair tbo act of tho Racing Commission had boen t.> the parent club at Patea.. Mr. Mns=ey, in reply, snidf that in his opinion, so far as racing was concerned, th© In.w in this country was in n very unsatisfactory condition. The Primo. Minister traced the history of tho movement, and he showed that in a very short tim© aftsr the bookmakers we to legalised, oases were brought under t;he notice of th© public by means of tho prosecutions of young fellows who had ©mbazzi'&cl ■moneys to pay gambling debts. Parliament then W3nt f,o tho other extreme. A commis. si on was set up, and as a rosuli quit© p. number of country race meetings that were conducted purely for the purpo-« of-sport, and not for profit or in the interests of gambling, were cut out. That was the question they were face to face with to-day. Mr. Massey said his sympathies iv'er© with tho small country meetincrs conduct<H purely for sport.. So far .as tho Government, were concerned in this' matter, they hod not yet bar] an opportunity of considering whether there w\W bo any legislation intrcdnosd during the forthcoming s-ession, but liament will unnuc-stiona-bly be given, an opportunity of expressing its opinion as to whether some permits should bo restored to certain country clubs from which thpv had b&sn taken away. In matters of policy on© member of the Government could not commit all his coll-aagucv;, and as a matter of fact th© Minister who had tno administration of the Act was th© Minister.'of ■Internal Affairs, and to him the representations made by the deputation that day would b© conveyed. He could promise, however, that when th© House meets, he would embrace the opportunity "of conferring with tihe .members of country districts, and it was quite possible that som© way out of tho difficulty which had arisen might present itself. What had happened was v-ory unfair to country clubs such as Patea, -but he wished "to make it perfectly plain that be did not think that the solving of the problem would be found in augmenting the number of racing- days.