TROUBLE AT ELLERSLIE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 238, 8 October 1928, Page 6

TROUBLE AT ELLERSLIE.

The unexpected that happened at Ellerslie on Saturday illustrated well the truth that a crowd is apt to behave worse than the individuals composing it. Though no doubt the number of violent-minded men in the crowd was very small, the demonstration that compelled the authorities to close the meeting was an ugly exhibition of temper. A wise management forestalls trouble. After what had happened at the Pakuranga meeting, the club might have been expected to make some arrangement for preventing doubt arising about the start of a race. It should be easy for the starter to ring a bell simultaneously with releasing the barrier and to station an official some little distance from the barrier who would signal to riders if the starter declared "No start." This precaution should be taken at all future meetings. Though a crowd is not entitled to behave as it did on Saturday, it is justified in feeling annoyed. The action of the authorities in starting the steeplechase while the crowd was on the course was dangerous and amazingly foolish. That the crowd was in the wrong was no excuse for the taking of such a risk. This was not an irregular meeting on the outskirts of civilisation, but a metropolitan gathering on one of the best-appointed courses in the world, where racing is strictly governed by custom and rule. To clear a course before a race starts is a precaution obvious to a child. That those responsible sent the horses out by a back way and allowed the field to race right into the crowd suggests that they were overdetermined to assert the club's authority. It is a mercy that someone was not killed; if this had happened the club might have found itself in a very unpleasant position.