CURRENT TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1121, 5 October 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

Interference with Sport. During the past t'welve months racing affairs generally have been very prominently before the public, both inside and outside our “TalkingShop of State-paid and Wowser-dri-ven Law-makers,’’ and the stewards of clubs have experienced. an anxious time owing to fluctuations which were to ’be expected in the revenue derived from the sport or racing, as a conse-

quence of the arbitrary restrictive legislation that has recently been past. The president of the Wellington Racing Club (Mr J. B- Harcourt) made some pointed remarks on this question at the annual meeting of his club last week. He said: “As you are aware, bookmakers have now been abolished, and the large fees which the club received from this source have gone too. In addition, we have to meet a tax of 2% per cent, on the totalisator turnover, instead of per cent, as formerly, and a further tax of 2% per cent, on all gate receipts and privileges. In order to safeguard the interests of the club your stewards deemed it prudent, for the past year, at any rate, to somewhat curtail the prize money. We are quite aware that this is a retrograde step in the progress of any body such as ours, but, in face of the difficulties which have been thrown in our way, we did not consider it advisable to take undue bisks.” Mr Harcourt then went on to say that the time had arrived when sporting people throughout the Dominion should no longer suffer a small section of the public, who know nothing about racing, to interfere in the way they had been doing to the detriment of true sport. He then enjoined every member to lend a hand to enlist their wives and daughters and obtain for the Sports Protection League as many members as possible, in order to prevent any •further encroachment upon the liberties of the sporting public. Still referring to the league, the speaker said: “This, gentlemen, is not a political organisation. It has no political views of any sort or description other than the preservation of our own liberties, and it matters not to us whether the member standing be a Liberal or a Conservative. If he is not a moderate-minded man, so far as we are concerned, our votes will be cast against him, and I ask you to bring the whole weight of your influence to bear in this direction. The moderate man has too long remained dormant and permitted a few faddists to make such a noise that their continuous clamouring has been mistaken f«r the voice of the; people.” !** ♦ ’ » Stipendiary Stewards. Of the many contentious problems that have exercised the minds of racing stewards and sportsmen generally during the past few years in New Zealand none have been more keenly debated than the question of the desirability or otherwise of appointing stipendiary stewards. Year after year the subject has cropped up on the agenda paper of the Racing Conference only to be deferred for future consideration or set aside in the most uncerimonious way as a result of the preponderance of the president’s (Sir George Clifford) uncompromising opposition to. the suggested reform. After the conference of 1910, however, the matter of the appointment of paid stewards was referred to a special committee, and at this year’s conference that, committee brought forward a motion declaring in favour of the appointment of stipendiaries together with a comprehensive set of rules specifying their duties- This failed to gain recognition by being converted into part of our racing laws. Naturally the action of the delegates created a great deal of adverse criticism, outside the conference, because the tone of the discussion was evidently in favour of appointments being made as the conference affirmed, by a majority of 21 to 14, the. desirability of creating stipendiary stewr ards. In fact the conference went further and declared that the existing state of affairs demanded an improvement in the method of controlling the sport of racing. Nevertheless, in the face of the resolutions passed, the matter of appointing stipendiary stewards was again “shelved” by the conference. Once again the ever-green subject was raised at the annual meeting of the Wellington Racing Club, when Mr. W. H. Turnbull (who resigned his position as a delegate to the Racing Conference this year on account of his club instructing him to oppose

the principal of appointing stipendiary stewards), moved a motion affirming the principle he has been such a staunch advocate of. In speaking of the motion, Mr. Turnbull said he considered that, by voting against the adoption of stipendiary stewards, when the question was before the Racing Conference the club had done an injury to racing. Personally, he did not think that there was one person in the Dominion who was opposed to them. The real danger was that if the clubs did not appoint them the Government would, and then clubs would be in the unsatisfactory position of having to pay them, while having no control over them. He then read two letters from prominent racing officials in New South Wales. These were to the effect that the stipendiary stewards had proved very satisfactory there. The contention that our leading owners would not race under the system of paid stewards was, in the opinion of Mr. Turnbull, answered by the fact that our leading owners went to Australia and raced under Jstipendiary stewards. In conclusion Me Turnbull stated that he had no doubt that a betting ring existed among jockeys, and one good result that would follow the appointment of stipendiary stewards would be that they could discover the character of jockeys and the nature of their betting transactions.

In seconding the motion Mr. J. J. McGrath expressed the belief that the appointment of stipendiary stewards would be in the best interests of racing. He referred to the large sums on the balance-sheet received from gates, nominations, acceptances, and totalisator, and stated that the people, who provided those funds, wanted something better than the condition of affairs which now existed. No one would suggest that there was anything wrong with the stewards of the club, but they had not the experience that was necessary. Stipendiary stewards were needed to keep trainers and jockeys up to the mark. The only thing that deterred them from doing wrong was the fear of being found out.

Nothing could be more significant of the trend of public sentiment on this question than the fact that the W.R.C. —which previously has constantly opposed stipendiaries—unanimously passed Mr. Turnbull’s resolution.

We have no hesitation in stating that the present government of the turf leaves room for improvement, and the racing public have time and again indicated that their chief grievance against racing clubs in general is that the backer of horses does not always get a fair run for his money. Undoubtedly the only practical way of overcoming this outcry is to appoint responsible paid stewards whose duty it would be to protect the public in this direction. Possibly a club may be convinced, so far as it is individually concerned with the sport provided is beyond criticism, but even so the general good of the sport calls for improved supervision. Surely the day of the stipendiary steward wiil not now be long delayed-

In moving the adoption of the report at the annual general meeting of the Wellington Racing Cub last night, the president remarked that the course at Trentham has been thoroughly maintained during the past year, and has in addition 'been materially improved by the creation of a sand track over a mile in length and 20ft. broad. “This track,” continued the president, “has been proved to be an excellent one. In fact, it is one of the finest in the Dominion for wet weather work, and the club is indebted to the care and ability of Caretaker IM'Glashan, who was responsible for it. The buildings are all in first-class repair, and the plant of the cub has been thoroughly well kept up, and renewals installed where necessary.”