Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1906. THE TROTTING CONFERENCE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 852, 5 July 1906, Page 5

Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1906. THE TROTTING CONFERENCE.

The Trotting Conference will commence its deliberations on Monday next, when the chief business to be transacted will be the consideration of the draft Rules of Trotting as prepared by the committee appointed by the Conference and forwarded to the affiliated clubs for suggestions. This is a very important work, and one which will doubtless occupy a considerable amount of time, although, as the various matters involved have already been fully considered, the delegates should have their minds fully made up as to the line of action to be pursued. Among the few notices of motion is one by the Tahuna Park Trotting Club, which it is to be hoped for the good of the sport in these parts will not become law. It is to the effect that there should be added to Rule 26 the words: “ No paid official of any club shall be eligible for nomination” as a member of the Board of the Association. Should this be carried, both the North Island delegates, Messrs. C. F. Mark and J. H. Pollock, would be ineligible to act any longer. Now in theory the suggestion may have merit, although even this is doubtful, but in practice if it has the effect of driving the two gentlemen mentioned out of the Board, then we say with no uncertain voice—away with it. If asked as to which gentleman had done the most to further the interests of trotting in Auckland, perhaps ninety-nine per cent, of the individuals so questioned would immediately point to Mr. Mark. For years past he has devoted an immense amount of time and trouble to fostering trotting in the North, and it is largely owing to his untiring efforts that the pastime is gradually emerging from the cloud which for-

merly enveloped ft. There certainly seems nothing to commend the suggestion that he should be retired from the Board because he is the secretary of the Auckland Trotting Club. One would think that this ought to prove an additional reason why he should be elected, as a secretary of a club would be more likely to have a comprehensive grasp of the subject than any lay member. Of Mr. Pollock the same may be said. He is handicapper for the Masterton Trotting Club and the Hutt Park Trotting Club, and therefore, according to the Tahuna Club, should not be a delegate. Here again the fact that Mr. Pollock is obliged to visit the meetings of these and other clubs should make him fully conversant with the needs and requirements of the sport, and should, of course, be an additional qualification in his favour if such were needed, which it is not. The Conference will do the snort no harm as far as the North Island is concerned if they give the motion short shrift.