CHURCHES AND JO CKEYS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 259, 27 July 1920, Page 5

CHURCHES AND JO CKEYS

"WASTING". CONDEMNED AS INHUMAN. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, July 26. • The Council of Churches to-night, on the motion of the Rev. J. J. North, carried the' following , resolution:—"The Council of Churches calls the attention of tho Government and of the publio generally to the inhumanity inflicted on jockeys by the present rules of racing. The council is convinced that the appeal of. the jockeys, to havo the minimum weight lifted from 6st. 71b. to 7st. fras one' which every principle, of humanity required should be granted/ 'The cruelty of wasting down to such a 'weight as 6st. 71b. is repulsivo in the extreme. The council notes that the Racing* Conference, largely in the interests of the horses, refused justice and humane conditions to the men. Tho council urges that the case is one for State action, and believes that the law shopld pxtend to jockeys as much protection'as it extends to brutea in tho Cruelty to Animals Act."

Mr. Sharps moved:. "That we write to the secretary of the Jockeys' Association expressing our sympathy, with their object in forming a strong; opposition." Tho Rev. W. Ready said it was not in tho province of tho council to say tho jockeys should form unions. He was against jockeys and their trade, and would' not help to. bolster up either. If the jockeys wanted a -union, lot them paddle their own canoe. Eventually the motion, was withdrawn.