Sporting Review AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Thursday, December 5, 1895. THE CONFERENCE MONOPOLY REPUDIATED.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 280, 5 December 1895, Page 6

Sporting Review AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Thursday, December 5, 1895. THE CONFERENCE MONOPOLY REPUDIATED.

The desire evinced by a section of New Zealand’s racing delegates at the last Turf Conference to give a Christchurch newspaper a monoply of the racing advertisements of the colony came before the Auckland Racing Club Committee at their meeting last Monday, and the governing body of the Auckland Province naturally failed to range in line with the Christchurch monopolists. We understand that the A.R.C. authorities, after considering the question, decided to communicate with Mr F. D. Luekie as Secretary of the Conference, and inform that gentleman that, having made arrangements respecting the vehicle through which their official notifications should be made for the current season, they could not consent to the Christchurch journal usurping the functions of their Official Calendar Although the Auckland metropolitan body was not represented when this matter of the Calendar was discussed at the Conference, their decision of last Monday plainly indicates how their vote would have gone had the gentleman entrusted with it been aware of their feelings in the matter. After the lead given them by the decision of the A.R C., the smaller clubs in Auckland Province will have no difficulty now in answering the question which has been perplexing them, viz., whether the notice published in the Press by the Conference Secretary calling upon all clubs to recognise that journal as their official organ requires any recognition on their part. Now that the Auckland Club have manifested a very natural objection to the proposition put forward by the supporters of the Weekly Press, we have no doubt the other metropolitan bodies interested will declare their views on the matter, and show the Racing Conference that the resolution alleged to have been passed last month is objectionable and opposed to the interests of racing men, except the minority who desire to foist the Press upon people who are unable to see the advantages to be derived from advertising in its columns. Even when assuming the garb of the N.Z. Racing Calendar, our contemporary apparently cannot be accurate. Whether through inadvertence or carefully calculated bounce, the Press, in supplying a report of the Conference proceedings in its so-called official department, states that the resolution appointing it the Calendar for New Zealand “ was carried on the voices.” But as a matter of fact the motion was car-

ried by 18 to 7 —a very different matter to “on the voices.” The promises, too, made by the Press in appealing to be made the Calendar have not been carried out. Our contemporary intimated that its first two pages would be devoted to Calendar notifications; but a careful comparison of issues published before and since the alleged appointment discloses the fact that, save in the matter of re-arrangement, our contemporary does not publish a single additional line of official intelligence. The Auckland Club will, no doubt, be supported in their assertion of independence by the Dunedin, body, which has before now shown a determination to manage its own affairs when the would-be autocrats of Christchurch and elsewhere have attempted to ram objectionable propositions down Dunedin throats. From the correspondence appearing in this issue it will he seen that protests are being made by those interested in country racing. Mr Herries’ proposal to appoint one journal for the publication of disqualifications, unpaid forfeit list, etc., and at the same time allow the present system of provincial Calenders to continue is a sensible suggestion. The forfeit and disqualification information would then, be centralised, and provincial and country clubs would continue to advertise in journals published in their interests and. devoted to the spread of local information.