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meeting with the totalizator we put through £8,160. We are still in credit. At our last meeting, when we lost £300, we gave £450 in stakes. Previously we gave £550. The loss of our permit was considered as big an injustice to Taranaki as it was to Patea. Ours was the only race meeting at Easter-time between Auckland and Feilding. All the people in Taranaki used to come to our meeting. This is a very central position for securing a good attendance. We have had bigger attendances here than at Hawera. This is a very thickly populated district. The people are engaged in dairy-farming, and the holdings range from 60 to 100 acres. Horowhenua Racing Club. The headquarters of the club are at Levin. The club was formed in 1897, and is registered. The last meeting was held in January, 1914. A list of the present members of the club and a copy of the club's last balance-sheet have been forwarded. The racecourse covers 70 acres (all boundaries fenced), and is planted. The circumference of the course is 8 furlongs. The tenure is freehold, comprising the whole 70 acres. The accommodation consists of grandstand inside and outside, stewards' rooms, jockeys' room, weighing-room, Press room, stalls for horses in saddlingpaddock, training-stables, twelve loose-boxes, feed-room, harness-room, boys' room, and fiveroomed cottage for trainer. The course is fenced inside and outside. The nearest clubs using the totalizator are at Foxton, fourteen miles distant, and Otaki, fourteen miles south. No doubt you are aware that our permit was taken away by the 1910 Racing Commission. We have a freehold of 70 acres, with all necessary buildings, training-tracks, stables, <fee. The grounds are all planted, and all have been laid down at great cost —over £5,000. We hold our agricultural shows and the trotting club had their meeting on this course. The grounds are also used by the people of Levin for school picnics and foot racing, &c. Since losing our permit we have been able to keep same going by the assistance of bank, local authorities, and people of Levin. If our permit is not now returned the grounds will have to be I'll! up find sold, which will mean a very big loss to Levin, which has no other grounds available. By the. Deputation. —We are in. a very fertile district, and the course does not require any recommendation whatever. We think we have all the appointments here to warrant you giving us our permit. We have a very successful agricultural show here. The show next Wednesday will be the ninth, and this year the entries are almost double those of last year. The show is held on the course at the invitation of the racing club, and if we do not get a permit we will not only lose our racing but the show and everything. We consider we have one of the best tracks of any up-country meeting in the Dominion. We have had a record put up on our course. We have a training-stable here. Our ground is used by the whole of the people of Levin, and we are loaning the Territorials the use of the course and buildings without fee in April next. The school picnics are held here. Our only alternative if we do not get a permit is to cut up the property, and that would be a big loss to the district. It has cost our members a lot to hold on to the ground up to the present time. We have not raced since 1911. The Park Company leases the ground to the racing club, with a purchasing clause at £5,000. It means that instead of a joint and several guarantee, as is the ease with many other clubs, we put the liability on a company. Our right of purchase is practically a perpetual right. The idea is to make the ground ;i freehold if we get our permit back. Kaikoura Racing Club. The headquarters of the club are at Kaikoura. The club is a very old one. and has been in existence for over forty years. It is a registered club, and held its last meeting in December, 1913. A list of the present members of the (dub and a copy of the club's last balance-sheet have been forwarded. The racecourse is situated on what is known as the South Bay Domain, and is controlled by a Domain Board comprised of the members of the Kaikoura County Council. The circumference of the course is just over 6 furlongs. There is a natural grandstand consisting of a terrace and planted with trees. The club has just expended £46 4s. lid. in the erection of stalls and fencing in a saddling-paddock. There are all necessary outbuildings, also totalizator-house and water-supply from pump. The course is not fenced all the way round on the inside, but the club will undertake to do this if necessary. The nearest clubs with a totalizator are at Blenheim, ninety-eight miles north, and Amberley. one hundred miles to the south. The nearest non-totalizator clubs are at Cheviot, forty-eight miles distant. Waiau, fifty-four miles, and Hurunui. seventy-seven miles distant. We make a special claim for consideration owing to the fact that the Racing Commission cancelled the club's license and gave as its reason. '.' No interest taken, the club neglecting to reply to the Commission's correspondence," which the then secretary declared he had never received. By the Deputation. —Our club has been running for forty-nine years, and we have never had a black mark against our name. We lost our permit through some misunderstanding between the former Racing Commission and our late secretary. We have gone to a fair amount of expense. in trying to make our course a passable course. The Domain Board have agreed that if we will make a road around the course they will close the road through the centre of the course. The course could not be seen under worse conditions than at the present time, because we have had the dries! season in the last fifty years. We think we are justly entitled to a permit, seeing that the townspeople always have a certain amount of sport and recreation. Our little trotting and race meetings provide the only sport we get in the district, because the bulk of the country people here never gel to town at all. Ourclub has a membership of 102. Horse-owners who come from Christchurch and Blenheim give our course a very good name in the matter of time. We strong!v urge our isolation in support of our claim. That this is a sporting district is proved by the fact that the Government had stallions in it for some time. The people- in this district are disposed

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