THE BELL BLOCK MEETING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 455, 13 April 1899, Page 11

THE BELL BLOCK MEETING.

[By

Taihoa.]

The Bell Block (Taranaki) Racing Club this season was refused a totalisator permit by the Colonial Secretary, -but on what grounds the privilege was withheld was never stated. The members of the club, who number over seventy, are naturally wrathful over the refusal of the permit, and that they have just grounds foY complaint will be seen by a perusal of the subjoined facts. The club was started about ten years ago, and a permit w as always granted them till this season. Prior to 1894 the club held the meetings on a track about four miles from New Plymouth, but in that year the Racing Conference decided on a reduction of permits, and Waitara, Oeo, Manaia, and Pungarehu were the Taranaki clubs from which permits were with-

held. The Bell Block Club was granted a permit, but on the condition that they removed their track so many miles from New Plymouth, and erected on the new course a grandstand, to cost not less than £250, and effect other improvements. The club fixed the new course at Sentry Hill, some nine miles from town, and effected the stated improvements, and since then have held a totalisator meeting. Having every confidence that the permit was permanent—that is, so long as the totalisator was legalised—the club made numerous additional improvements that season, and last season spent some £l4O in ringfencing the course and attending to other requirements for the convenience of horse-owners and other patrons of sport. In the face of all these improvements, and the substantial prize-money given in stakes, the club this season have been refused a permit, although their just claim has been repeatedly brought under the notice of the .authorities who regulate and control the racing world in the colony. The club have, however, determined to hold a no-totalisator meeting, trusting that next season the Colonial Secretary will see the justice of their claim for a permit, and grant them one when the annual allocation of permits is made. I may mention, in conclusion, that the members of the club are not located in any one centre, but are scattered over a wide area in the district.