Sporting Review. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1893. OURSELVES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume III, Issue 133, 9 February 1893, Page 4

Sporting Review. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1893. OURSELVES.

The readers of the Sporting Review will note in this issue three new features which we are sure will tend to popularise the paper. First and foremost of these is a Volunteer column, contributed by “ Rifleman.” and those who remember the popular contributions of “Torpedo” to this journal up to his decease at the end of May, may be assured that in “ Rifleman” he has found a very worthy successor. All contributions of interest

on shooting subjects addressed to “ Rifleman,” or to the Editor of the Sporting Review, will receive attention. From our athletic friends —running men, rowers, cricketers, footballers, devotees of tennis, and cyclists, we shall at all times be glad to hear accounts of their proceedings, but we would at the same time remind them that their contributions should reach this office not later than Tuesday evening in each week. Though we have not in the past received, we freely admit, the encouragement we fancy we have deserved from those who follow athletics —and though many of them have at times had full justice done to them in the shape of cheap “ advts.” in these columns —we will not grumble thereat, but will tell them that their interests will be still catered for in the Sporting Review.

Another new feature in the Sporting Review this week is the “ Personalities’ column, in which our contributor hits off the current topics of the day in the Auckland streets —in fact to Anglicise a a French word, “ Flaneur”-izes the leading characteristics and actions of those whose figures are most familiar in the streets of Auckland, as well as in social or sporting circles. We alluded last week to the fact that special arrangements had been made by the Sporting Review for a weekly dramatic letter from Melbourne another of which series appears on a different page of this issue—and we hope shortly to introduce further several new features into these columns However, our new accessions of strength show that the proprietor of the Sporting Review is on the alert to please his patrons, whom he feels sure will continue to extend the same generous support to him that they have done in the past.

It is to be hoped that the process of barring horses on the totalisator and paying out on the horse that finishes second is not going to become a pretty regular practice. At times it has its advantages for a racing club—some of whom are always ready to stretch a point or two if they think they can benefit their revenue —and we are willing to admit that it often benefits a horseman and a section of the public. But is it within the law ? There is nothing in the Rules of the Totalisator to say that it shall not be done, but one of the rules distinctly says that “The horse placed first by the judge shall be declared the winner,” unless, of course, a protest be lodged against him and the stewards award the stake to the second horse. There is not a word in the Rules of the Totalisator, as incorporated with the Rules of Racing, which gives the stewards power to “ bar” any horse on the totalisator. They might just as well “ bar” the biggest outsider in the crowd as bar a favourite, if they wish to affirm this “barring” principle, and we suppose that if at any time a rumpus was raised they would shelter themselves behind Totalisator Rule 23. which says. —“ Should any dispute arise it shall be referred to the stewards, whose decision in all cases shall be final.” A very convenient way, no doubt, to get out of a difficulty. But would a court of law uphold the stewards in such a case if it ever came before them ? We doubt it much. But, anyway, the precedent is bad, and we hope this “barring” of horses in the totalisator will not be further allowed. We are led to make these remarks because, in addition to St. Hippo being “ barred” on the machine in the Great Northern Derby minor clubs have been following the lead thus shown—among others the Turakina Club at their meeting a few days back, which is reported in another column. The innovation is in our opinion a very dangerous one for any club to countenance.