Horseracing Menaced

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 21, 25 May 1922, Page 11

Horseracing Menaced

SPORTSMEN SEEK PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION The drum of hoof-beats on green turf;, the thrills of the struggle for supremacy of fine horses and game jockeys gay dresses and sunshine on beautiful racecourses rollicking days of enjoyment and good fellowship—how much these things mean to the average New Zealander ! Yet, at this moment, one of our finest sports and relaxations is menaced by a canker from within. Betting with the bookmaker, driven underground by ill-considered legislation, is affecting the moral fibre of people in every centre and unjustly drawing racing into disrepute. The road is open for the propaganda of extremists who seek nothing less than the abolition of horse-racing. When the Gaming Act was first passed, the fine, honest, breezy chaps who used to call the odds of our racecoursesmen whom everybody trusted, and respectedwere •'compelled to relinquish their profession in order to maintain their reputation. A number of good sportsmen have now seen the mistake of this legislation, and are endeavoring to nip its ill-con-sequences in the bud. A petition is at present being circulated and freely signed, asking for a Parliamentary Commission to take evidence as to whether reputable men should not bo licensed to operate on racecourses only, in competition with the totalisator. This is a democratic solution of the problem which has presented itself to fairminded people. If bookmaking is again made a respectable avocation it will enable the authorities to deal effectively with the under-current of undesirables. The reputable men who would then be legalised would take a sincere interest, in assisting to restore racing to its proper place in public esteem. Do your part, sign the petition to-day. It has been freely circulated, and may be signed almost anywhere. When petitions are filled-up they should be promptly returned to Box 1011, Wellington.—Cl.