"NEAR PERFECTION"

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14766, 4 October 1921, Page 7

"NEAR PERFECTION"

GAMING COMMISSION'S REPORT. OPINION OF W.R.C. PRESIDENT. "A few remarks recording the report of the Garniug Commission may not be out of place, but I make them with, some, diffidence, as the, Commissioners h:.vc seen lit to recommend this el-ub one more day's racing, thus bringing it into line with the Canterbury Jockey Club." said the chairman (Mr J. B. Harcourl) in his address at the annual meeting of the ton Racing Club. "Your stewards have viewed with some concern the reception in certain places that tins been accorded to this report, snd they hope that by the time it comes up for the consideration of Parliament, the natural disappointment felt by those clubs that are recommended for elimination or curtailment will have been dissipated by the realisation that the adoption of the report is immeasurably, in the true interest of sport, a fact which is realised by !)0 per cent of the racing people of the Dominion. Speaking for the executive of this club. I cannot, be too emphatic in stating that they arc strongly in favour of its adoption as it stands, believing as they do that it is as near perfection as possible. With others, we regret that it has been found necessary for the general welfare to abolish certain clubs, many of them old established, but this result was inevitable, and it ought to be accepted in the tnie sporting spirit, and all local interests submerged in the interests of (he general welfare. "An Economic Absurdity."

"Regardless of all that has been said to the contrary, it must be recognised as an. economic absurdity that rroro than one racecourse and one trotting track should be maintained in any one centre. The opponents in Parliament arc bound to make this the occasion for "a frontal attack on racing in general, and the big clubs in particular. The latter probably on account of the big totalisator turnover. The. large attendance, which is, of course, responsible for this turnover, appears to be overlooked. The big clubs are the foundation stone upon which the whole structure is raised, the rich classic races provided by them making it possible for breeders lo import high-class sires. Tho Press and Racing.

"In this connection, while acknowledging the generous treatment always received at the hands of the press, it has its disadvantages, and an exaggerated opinion of the amount of racing is created in the minds of those who do not know the facts. At present, regardless of the fact that the whole world is fraught with questions of the most vital importance, questions dealing with the actual life and death of nations, among others, the question of the urgent necessity ofseeing to the preservation of our great Empire's sea power, it is perhaps irritating to many, and certainly to all of our opponents, to see large spaces taken up in the daily papers by long reports telegraphed from one end of the Dominion to the other of every little race meeting sent through the Press Association and glorified into matters of vital importance. A little wise discrimination is necessary here. I trust the gentlemen of the press wll take (lie remarks just made in the spirit in which they are meant."