THE CLUBMAN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1148, 11 April 1912, Page 6

THE CLUBMAN.

The new Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon. G. W. Russell) has not taken long to announce to the world that he—and he alone —will be the dictator to grant or refuse racing permits for the next season, commencing on August 1. In referring to the cutting out of country clubs, necessitated by the report of the Racing Commission, Mr Russell says he will have full and absolute power, independent of the recommendations of the Commissioners, to consider.anddeal with applications for racing permits;* and — warns all clubs against making any commitments beyond July 31 without making certain that they will receive the necessary permits to enable them to hold meetings or use the totalisator.

The Minister goes on to say that the whole question of issuing totalisator permits for 1912-3 will receive early attention at his hands, and it therefore behoves those country clubs that were unable to satisfy the Racing Commission that they should receive prior claims to metropolitan clubs to send in their applications without delay, so that the Hon. Minister n ight deal fully with them when the time comes for allocating next season s favours.

We naturally applaud the new Minister for Internal Affairs on his early appreciation of the consideration that is due to the Sport of Kings, and we would warmlyapprove of any move he might make in restitution to racing clubs for the puritanical interference a bigoted section of the community hoodwinked a spineless Government into denying the sports-loving New Zealander. We might even go further, and assure the new Minister that any action on his part that might go to counteract the insidious influence of wowserism in the Council of the Dominion would go a long wav towards earning for the “makeshift” Government the goodwill—if not approbation —of a big majority of moderate-mind-ed and tolerant people, who, after all, make up the factor that determins the fate of Administrations at the ballot boxes. There was ample evidence at the recent general election to confirm this contention.

Without any desire to cause the Hon. Minister any discomfort or damp his ardour we would remind him that in reference to his seeming concern for racing clubs that he is inclined to be somewhat optimistic about his prospects of allocating the racing permits for next season. The Gaming Amendment Act passed by the last Parliament provided that the number of racing days should be permanent!} 7 reduced to 250 for each racing season extending from August 1 to July 31, and although the recommendations of the Racing Commission only held good for the present season no Minister had or has any power to alter the number of permits or even re-shuffle them until July 31 of this year. There are, of course, very grave doubts if the present Government will reign beyond that date, and if they do not the Hon. G. W. Russell will have no say whatsoever in the allocation of permits for next season. Anything the Minister might do in the meantime, before the end of July, would naturally therefore be subject to the approval of the Minister for Internal Affairs holding office on July 31, 1912.

In making these remarks we would . have it understood that personally we ccnside” Mr Russell would, if given the opportunity prove an eminently generous purveyor of racing permits, and could be trusted to treat racing clubs with marked liberality—should the law allow him. There is, however, no guarantee that he will not be replaced by some other Minister for Internal Affairs, and there is still greater uncertainty that if he still held office he would have the temerity to introduce another Amendment Act to enable him to increase the number of racing days in the year. This being the case, Mr Russell’s good offices would be of little service to racing clubs and the sporting public generally.

There is, however, this aspect of the case to be considered: if Mr Russell should have the. allocation of rac-

ing permits next season his remarks are not without colour. They indicate that he is inclined to favour certain country clubs that lost their permits on the recommendation of the Racing Commission should get their privileges back again. If they do the result would be that some of the clubs, metropolitan and otherwise, would have to go short; because as stated above no Minister could allocate more permits than the statutory number fixed by the Gaming Act.

"On-this point we would quote form the report of the Racing Commission, which reads: “We are unanimously in the opinion that some measure of redistribution would have been preferable, and that with the exceptions which could have been thus remedied, and considering the consequential diminution of registered clubs caused by the Gaming Act, the days of rac-

ing are not excessive to supply the requirements of so scattered a population. We have recognised as a principle that the larger cities cater not only for the recreation of their own residents but that their greater resources enable them to provide efficiently for a periodic influx from neighbouring districts. We have also regarded the less accessible communities as entitled to special consideration wherever they have shown any active desire for racing by the provision of needful equipments.”

This is logical and reasonable. The Racing Commissioners . being guided by these considerations, carried out their exacting duties with commendable fairness. To say that the country clubs suffered unduly under the recommendations is far from correct, and any Minister who endeavours to allocate a greater number of racing days to country clubs, which must necessarily come off the metropolitan and suburban clubs would make

an irreparable, blunder and inflict a grave injustice on the clubs that are now catering for the greatest numbers.

We are entirely in sympathy with country sportsmen who are anxious to hold race meetings in their district in the same way as they do athletic meetings, chopping carnivals, shooting matches, hunting meets and other sports gatherings. We also condemn as entirely unjustifiable the action of our Parliamentarians who pander to kill sports and restrict country folk from holding race meetings at their own free will. We cannot, however, support the suggestion that once a statutory limit has been placed on the number of days racing, that the sparsely populated districts should be favoured to the detriment of the cities and large towns in the matter of the allocation of totalisator permits.

Under the recommendations of the Racing Commissioners the country clubs were liberally treated considering the restricted number of permits to distribute ; and the liberality meted out to the country was most prejudicial to the people in the centres of population. Take the Auckland province as an example. The three, leading clugs: Auckland R.C., /Avondale, J.C. and Takapuna J.C. lost between them six days’ racing, while the country clubs only lost three and received two that had not previously existed, which virtually means the. country clubs only lost one day as against the city’s six.

Then when we consider the vast difference between the capital that has been sunk by the three, city clubs for the benefit of patrons as compared with the small outlay of the united country clubs; the splendid facilities offered on the one hand and the difficulties of transit on the other; the liberal stakes distributed by one and

tne meagre prizes given by the other, tne great disparity between city and country clues becomes manifest to all. It is not as though the countryuwellers suffered by tne absence ox local race meetings, because they do not. Tney have for the most part better resources to enable them to enjoy the sport at the big meetings than they have to attend their own small gatherings, where the appointments are necessarily primitive and the conveniences limited.

What has happened to the “N.Z. Herald?” Their erotic spring poet was evidently let loose at Ellerslie on Easter Monday, for dear old “Grannie” came out with the following beautiful effusion as an Easter egg for its beneficent readers. We do not consider we are called on to offer our readers any apology for reprinting so delicious a word picture. We, however, must offer our humble, gratitude to the “Herald” for the soul-stirring lines. They surely deserve to be “immortalised.”

“With a mingled music made, up of the thunder of hoofs, the hum and sometimes the roar of the multitude, and the clinking calculation of the totalisator for the treble that gives the true spice to a harmony, the day 7 at Ellerslie goes on in a symphony of excitement. All this splendour of sound is set in a casket jewelled with blossoms. There are few fairer spots in Auckland than the Ellerslie course, and to give the sporting crowd all credit, they take a good deal of pleasure in its beauties. The wholesome revenue of the Racing Club does not al? go in buildings, stakes, and privileges; quite a respectable, sum is obviously invested in nurseries and gardens. Yesterday there was such a display of begonias, along with a variety of other flowering and gayfoliaged plants, as would delight the eye of the most careless of visitors. Reds, yellows, and browns, in both flower and leaf, vied with the green for supremacy. These varied enthusiasms of garden-colour, ranged in stars, crescents, arcs, and other formal shapes were set in a spread of brilliant well-kept lawn that was of such fine quality that its texture defied the trampling of thousands.”

Who said these were prosaic days? Who said such beautiful sentiments could be dulled by the alleged plebian atmosphere of the Turf? Wowsers please note that a great and glorious era is dawning in the sporting world, when hack scribes are being replaced by imaginative poets. * «: * 7

A Scotchman went to some horse races for the first time. His companions induced him to stake a shilling on a twenty-to-one chance, and this outsider won. When the bookmaker gave old Sandy a sovereign and his shilling, the winner could not believe his eyes. “Do you mean to tell me,” he said, “that I get all this for my shilling?” “You do,” said the bookmaker. “Ma conscience!” muttered Sandy. “Tell me, mon, how long has this been going on’.'”

Farther Bernard Vaughan recently gave some advice to young men in a humorous address. “Popularity, popularity among the. ladies, is a great help to any young man,’ said Father Vaughan, “and there is nothing like generosity to make a young man popular. I heard a lady praising a young man the other evening. ‘He is so generous,’ she said. ‘He takes mother an me out to dinner nearly every week. We dote on him.’ Then she siled, and added; if fact, we. table d’hote on him!”

Half the time while a man is thinking “I wonder if I dare?” the woman is thinking “I wonder why he doesn’t?”

A fool and his money are soon parted, but “parting is such sweet sorrow ! ”

A man doesn’t know how to live until a woman has taught him and then it often happens he prefers to live alone.