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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume III, Issue 125, 15 December 1892, Page 5

It is a peculiar coincidence that just at the time when there is so much discussion between the Metropolitan Clubs and the Country Clubs as to how far the claims of the-latter should be recognised by the governing bodies in each Provincial District of New Zealand, the Australasian should devote a leading article of fully a column to the position of New Zealand racing affairs. But this is

the subject matter of a leader in the sporting columns of our contemporary of 3rd inst., which came to hand by Tuesday’s boat from Sydney. The Australasian commences its article by pointing out that there is no premier club in New Zealand to take upon itself the general control of racing affairs as the Victoria Racing Club, Australian Jockey Club, and South Australian Jockey Club do in their respective colonies. The writer goes on to say with some truth

That the establishment of a New Zealand Jockey Club, with supreme powef in all racing matters, is a thing to be desired is admitted in a general way by the representatives of the various leading clubs, but the task of obtaining such an institution seems to be beset with difficulties. With so many distinct racing centres, which district is to be accorded the privilege of dictating to the others? We presume that, from its position and strength of its club, Canterbury is the most powerful racing body in New Zealand ; but Auckland and Dunedin are both very healthy combinations, and Wellington might also object to sinking her identity to the extent required if Canterbury were to possess the premier club of Maoriland That the leaders of the various metropolitan associations are fully seized of the advantages to be gained by having a recognised head in racing matters is shown by the reports of the doings of the conference now deliberating in Wellington.

The Australasian further points out that the cry now being raised by some of the New Zealand country clubs is something similar to what occurred both in Victoria and South Australia, when the V.R.C. and S.A.J.C. endeavoured to limit racing to a certain extent. Our contemporary continues thus :—

In South Australia the Government only allows two courses within 20 miles of Adelaide to use the machine, and outside this radius racecourses, to obtain totalisator licenses, must be at least 20 miles apart. In New Zealand it seems to have been the practice to let the totalisator be worked anywhere, and when the Government imposed a tax of one and a-half per cent., the clubs, already receiving ten per cent, for themselves, saddled the investors with this imposition instead of deducting it from the handsome percentage allowed themselves. Evidently the Maori racing clubs have had it all their own way so far as the use of the “instrument that can’t lie ” has been concerned, but this state of things cannot last, and for the sake of racing in their colony, it is to be hoped sporting men will take a sensible view of the position, and, by allowing the metropolitan clubs—or the New Zealand Jockey Club, if it is formed—to regulate the use of the machine, save risking its loss altogether.