NAPIER.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume III, Issue 107, 11 August 1892, Page 5

NAPIER.

August 6th. Some papers have erroneously stated that the Waipawa Club has assets over liabilities valued at £7OO. The correct amount is a trifle more substantial, £1290 13s 3d. Mr. Percy Martin’s personal effects at the Martindale training establishment, Hastings, are to be sold this week. A sporting friend accosted me the other day and said he had signed the petition for the abolition of the totalisator. _ As he was the last man I thought would do such a thing I asked his reason. “ Oh,’ was his reply, “just to oblige the fellow who asked me, for I knew they wouldn’t abolish the machine.” Seeing the great progress that has been made lately by the Waipawa County Racing Club, and having in view the great outcry just now against the multiplicity of race meetings in this district, there are one or two matters which may at this juncture be suggested and adopted by the club mentioned. They have a big bank balance, and a large sum laid out in good assets, and such being the case could now give big prize money to be competed for—amounts such as would induce the best horses in the colony to race at Kaikora, and one result would be (especially when Dr. Earle’ motion re prize money is adopted) that all the small clubs would be pushed out of time altogether. We have quite a number of them in Hawke’s Bay—tin pot meetings which could be well done without. The Waipawa meeting could be the county race gathering, and success would undoubtedly be assured if the Waipukurau Jockey Club amalgamated with the Waipawa institution. The Waipukurau Club only hold one race meeting a year, and are in a good financial position, inasmuch as they have been unable to spend money on improving their course or erecting buildings thereon, not having a permanent tenure of the ground. As it is intended to let or lease the place from Mr. Gaisford when he returns from England, and erect all the necessary adjuncts to a racecourse, it would be well if the question of amalgamation were first considered before anything is done in this direction. The Waipukarau Club contains names on its list who are recognisedas some of our leading'■spores, and if theWaigawa Club would consent to amalgamation a strong committee could be formed to control the destinies of the new institution, which would have a promising career before it. It is the intention of a member of the committee of the Manawatu Racing Club to draw up a circular to be forwarded to the various racing clubs in the colony, asking their co-operation in urging upon the Government the advisability of giving clubs sufficient notice should they decide to abolish the totalisator. Ido not think this is necessary, for if the Metropolitan Clubs now start and restrict racing in their respective districts, the machine will still flourish and will never be touched. Besides, the friends of the turf are too numerous in the House to permit of the abolition of the machine until good notice is given to the various clubs. I think that the doom of the totalisator will not be sealed for many a long day yet, despite the protestations of people who always profess to so greatly interest themselves in the welfare of their fellow men.

The stallion Derringer, by Musket — Rosalie, has been sold by Mr. W. Black, of Gisborne, to Mr. J. O. Hayward, of Wairarapa. . The oldest of Derringer’s progeny are now aged three years. About £SOO is required to start the proposed Hawke’s Bay Provincial District Hunt Club, and of that amount £3lB has been subscribed by the sports of town and country. An effort is now being made to collect the deficiency, meetings of those interested in the movement being held in different parts of the district. The money will be devoted to buying a pack of hounds, erecting kennels, employing a Huntsman, Whip, finding horses, etc., and after starting £3OO a-year will be required to maintain the Club, but this can be done by the aid of members’ annual subscriptions. A pack of hounds, bought iu England, would cost £175 landed in Napier (inclusive of the charges during the six months they would be in quarantine), and a good deal of money could consequently be saved if a pack could be bought in the Colony. The establishment of a Hunt Club in this district is a good idea, inasmuch as it will provide sports with

capital sport for four months out of the year (twice a week), improve the breed of horses, and conduce to the well-being of sport. A general meeting of those interested has been fixed for Waipawa on the Ist September, when the canvassers will hand in their lists and report progress. Mr. G. Heslop, the new starter for Woodville District Jockey Club, is manager for Nelson Bros, there, and brother of Mr W. Heslop, the well-known starter at the Town and Suburban meeting. The amounts put through the totalisator by the different Metropolitan Clubs are mentioned in the Weekly Press, blit other Clubs, who have put through as much as, or more than some of the Metropolitan Clubs, is not mentioned. Take the Napier Park Racing Club for instance. They put through £35,834 during their four meetings, which is more than any Club, except Dunedin, Auckland, Canterbury or Wellington. The President of the Woodville Jockey Club, Mr. G. D. Hamilton, when speaking at the annual meeting the other night, said there was some valuable stock in New Zealand in the shape of horse-flesh, and although it seemed ridiculous at present to say so, he thought that some day horses would be regularly sent from New Zealand to England, and be an appreciable source of income to the country. At one time if anyone had said that frozen meat would be sent from New Zealand to England he would have been laughed at, but it was an everyday thing now. There , were plenty of horses in New which though not first class, would realise . very good prices if shipped home, and/the day was not far distant when the horsA, trade between this Colony and the Mother Country would assume extensive dimensions. . ■ . .... Leonardo, who sported silk a few times in New Zealand, including when he ran second—once to in the Hastings Bracelet and behind Tirailleur in the Wanganui Derby —is now being ridden about on a station out of Melbourne. The grand horse parade which it was intended to hold under the auspices ,of the A. and P. Society is likely to fall through. X Tirailleur has now recovered from accident to his tail he travelling in a train The action brought the Railway Cqmm settled on and £75 for the .nasty -to his racked for life. A.\jiorse-owner complains of the payments the Canterbury Jockey Club’s meeting X the Spring being due so early, for, as he bjits it, at this stage a trainer would not fellow what kind of young horses he had K in his stable, and simply paid up blindly. \There are any amount of bowses in the New Zealand Cup, for instance, who have apparently not a to one chance, and others who may have-y-coming stock —-of whose good qualities thfeir trainers may as yet be in the dark. OK course the of payment could be\altered, but that would not suit the Clul\ from a financiafeview. Another way of locking at the matter is to consider these eaHy payments as\a contribution from the\ owners keeping up the race of yhe season —the N.Z. Cup; but when the\pwner has to pay up for all of them he is\apt to complain occasionally, especially doesn’t own a bank. v Percy Martin tells a good stony of a newspaper reporter on the other \fide, who stated in his paper that he had\an interview with Martin, who said tha\t there were dozens of horses better than' the redoubtable Kimberley running ip hack races in New Zealand. The first that Martin heard of this was when he read it in the paper. It will not be very long now before thej foaling season sets in, and you will ceive plenty of announcements fro lll district. fBY WIRE.] 'k Tuesday. Mr. W. D. Ireland, the secretary of the Hawke’s Bay Trotting Club, has had his salary increased by £2O a year by the committee in recognition of his valuable services. The old racer Maori Weed is at present located at Jull’s stables, Hastings, and looks well on it. This horse will be remembered as having won the Hawke’s Bay Cup Handicap, If miles, as far back as 1876, when he was nominated by a Maori named Tangatake. He then won with 9.10 up, and was ridden by W. Edwards, who was trainer for Captain Russell. The following year, 1877, he again won the same race for Mr. Waters,

having an impost of 9.0, R. Gooseman piloting him to victory. The successful tender for grubbing up trees, stumping, ploughing, and levelling the Trotting Club’s new course has commenced work. It has been decided by the committee to at once have the boundary of the course planted with macro'earpa trees. The committee of the Napier Park Club believe that their’s is the only club in the colony that has no stake in its programme under £SO. The annual general meeting of the Town and Suburban Racing Club is to be held to-night at Taradale. The com- =- jnitteo state they are pleased to lay before members a satisfactory statement of accounts, and have much pleasure in having to congratulate the club on its prosperity during the past season. They had a fair credit balance-sheet at the commencement, and had since expended the sum of £B2 upon buildings and improvements, leaving at the present time a credit balance of £146 13s. They had deemed it necessary to provide shelter for the horses attending the meetings, and so made provision for the same by erecting a building containing accommodation for twelve horses. Full advantage had been taken of this by horse trainers, and it was much appreciated at the last meeting. The following is the report to be presented at a meeting of the Town and Suburban Racing Club Company, Ltd.: —“Your directors are pleased to have to inform the company that since the last jinnual meeting they have paid off the £mortgage to Burke’s trustees with the assistance of the Bank of Australasia, with which Bank they have arranged for any further advances necessary. They were endeavouring to steadily reduce the amount of the company’s liabilities, which are at present £230, due to the Bank of The income the directors had"to deal with at present did not warrant them in declaring a dividend.”