Sporting Review. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1891.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume I, Issue 30, 21 February 1891, Page 3

Sporting Review. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1891.

We feel gratified at the Sporting Standard taking notice of our little paper and quoting from it. However, we cannot help feeling both amused and flattered at the following remark : —“ The N.Z. Sporting Review does speak its mind, when occasion requires, far more openly than any of us newspaper hacks dare do in Victoria.” We always thought that our contemporary was outspoken, but it appears that they award tis the palm. We well know that in New Zealand newspaper men have to write in a great measure what they are told, not what is their opinion. We thoughr that in Victoria, in fact in the whole of Australia, it was quite the reverse, and we are sorry to find our mind disabused on this question, as we hoped that freedom of pen was privileged in Australia the same as in England. Let us inform our contemporary that finding the want of freedom of opinion, especially in sporting matters, was at discount in New Zealand, determined us to start our little paper. Being untrammelled and unassisted, we determined to learn to walk before attempting to run, ergo, the smallness of our paper. To obtain our object we endeavoured to get the best contributors we could, and luckily succeeded in obtaining the assistance of two gentlemen who have had considerable practical experience both in England and the Colonies in their particular departments. Our contemporaries who quote from us may feel assured that it is from reliable sources. Our great difficulty has been to procure special correspondents at a distance. The most of those offering have been colonial boys, with no experience and unreliable. However, our hopes as regards the paper have been realised, and we are now beginning to walk firmly, and trust that at the end of our year we shall be able to run, and be second to none in this Colony. .We are sorry to see that the Sydney Referee has not the same faith in us as the Sporting Standard. “ Emu,” in the former paper, doubts the performance of McPherson in the 250 yards race at the late athletic meeting. He bases his doubt through what he knows Fred Kingsiriill can do. Let us assure “Emu” that the official time was perfectly correct. Our representative, who coincided with them, can be thoroughly relied upon. We have quite as good timekeepers here as in Australia; it does not take a watchmaker to be a time-taker. The time given in the Sporting Review is authentic. If “Emu” can carry his memory back about thirty or thirty-five years hfe will find McPherson’s time is hot phenomenal, though in those days records were not so regularly kept. Let them go back to the tithes of the University and other meetings held at Prince’s Grounds, Lillie Bridge and Other places.

We clip the following from the Australasian'. — “Mr. E. T. Barnard, handicapper to the Victorian Racing Club, tendered his resignation a few days ago, but at the earnest request of the Chairman (Mr. C. B. Fisher), he has consented to retain the position until the conclusion of the V.R.C. Autumn Meeting. Since

1869, when he was appointed to the responsible post, Mr. Barnard has practically controlled the racing of the colony. The mere fact that he has compiled the weights for no less than twenty Melbourne Cups, to say nothing of hundreds of lesser note, at once marks him out as among the principal figures in the group of racing men, to whose efforts the present gratifying position of the turf in Victoria is due, and his retirement will be viewed by the sporting public with feelings of regret. Although ; no more successful than other handicappers in escaping censure, the conscientiousness with which he did his work and his unimpeachable integrity, gained for him the admiration of those who were at times most inclined, to find fault with his handiwork. Mr. Barnard’s s experience of the turf dates back to a very early period. He was born in 1826 at Southampton, and when in his teens he was an accomplished horseman. For some time he had no opportunity of exercising his peculiar gifts. Three years’ sojourn in India as pn officer, ; of the Royal Scots Fusileers disgusted him with army life, and in 1852 he was a passenger, to Australia in the Chusan. Shortly after,,his arrival he was appointed Goldfields Cbnimissioner and Resident Warden at Beechworth. During all the time he took a warm interest in racing, and whenever he could be spared from his official business he paid a visit to Melbourne to attend the races then held at St. Hilda Park. In those early days, Mr. George Watson, the veteran starter, was a prominent amateur steeplechase rider, and Mr. Barnard has many anecdotes to tell of the days when prizes were nothing like so big, but when the /fences were just as stiff and the horseman just ,as daring as they are now. Mr. Barnard can well remember the day when the Melbourne Cup, with a stake of 300SOVS, was considered the great event of the racing season. The early triumphs of Veno, the consecutive dead heats of Saladin and Flying Dutchman for the Australian Cup, are memories almost as fresh to him as the victory of Martini-Henry in the. Melbourne Cup or the success of Carbine, the greatest horse ever known in Australia.” ,

We take the following from'the Canterbury Times, a great many of the remarks we concide in:— “ Here is a paragraph taken from one of our American exchanges, which we should like to commend to some of our fellow journalists, and to newspapers readers generally :—I have and shall endeavour t 6 address my readers, without tinge at least of monetary bias, fori I judge that they hate with the same hearty disgust which animates me, the torrent of venal slush flowing through specially horse papers, burying neck deep the faults of every animal whose owner will put up a dollar for a “write up.” A legion of writers go through the country soliciting jobs of this character upon the specious plea that a breeder should present his claims to the public. As an avowed advertisement, for the terms ‘of which the owner is responsible, perhaps a breeder should, if he feels disposed and desires patronage, but not AS a party to the fraud on a patient public of an advertisement in disguise, the sugary plea of a paid advocate masquerading in the reading columns as an unbiased critic and a public educator. I have one of these fellows in mind now who, when he fails to get a job to write up, often out of revenge writes down, and the reading columns of the publication in which he seeks to guide the breeding public simply become sinks of mental prostitution.” During 1 fifteen years’ connection with. th.e colonial press, we have come across some of the above called reporters; have seen some amusing things happen when they have either received or not received what they considered their due. We will mention two or three instances. . ' , . - Some time ago’an opera company, of rather mediocre quality, visited Auckland, They required a puff. An accommodating reporter was soon found, but as he did not understand music, a friend was interviewed; a splendid critique written out and sent to the office, and was duly published. The reporter and, His friend had other amusements on hand, so did not attend the opera. Next morning there was a denouement. The prima donna had been taken ill and unable to sing, so the opera was changed. The critique, so carefully prepared, became the property of the public, and many a joke it cost the poor reporter. One other case we will mention. A young fellow, who did not know one end of a horse from another, and who had never seen a racecourse, was anxious to become a sporting reporter. Having plenty of cheek, he managed to wheedle his way to be made a special correspondent for a certain paper. He goes

out to the different stables and stud farms, and if he gets what he considers his due. he will write what he is told, or either picks up information from those who do know or turn plagiarist. If he does not get his dues, or a trainer refuses to let him see through the stables, he vents his spite on him by running him or his horses down, doing all he can to injure him in the eyes of his master and the public. This reporter has been called a clever colonial boy by some persons, but unfortunately for them he was born within the sound of Bow Bells, and knows more about “ All Hot ” than he does of horses. . If editors of papers inquired more into the antecedents of their special correspondents, the public would not have so much trash and mendacity thrust upon them.

There appears to be some trouble over the handicap for the Wanganui Cup. Mr. Hately gave in the handicap to be published to the morning papers, and also posted it at the Club’s official office. The next day the daily papers throughout New Zealand published the official list in which Cynisca and Recluse were Weighted at Bst. In the evening an amended handicap was sent to the papers giving Cynisca’s weight as Bst gib, and Recluse’s Bst 21b. . A focal appeared in the Chronicle the following morning confirming this alteration, saying at the same time that the error was caused by the handicapper in copying the weights from a rough copy. This is altogether a too flimsy excuse. Mr. Hately of all people in the world ought to know that when a handicap is once published it cannot be altered. No one will believe the mistake did occur in the transcribing of the notes, but in the fact of the handicapper finding out that he had made a mistake. Mr. Hunter, it is stated, is going to test the matter. What the issue of the case will be in New Zealand it is hard to say, but if the case was brought before the Newmarket Jockey Club there is not the slightest doubt that the verdict would be : The handicap must stand as published, unless it was a printer’s error.