THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 16, 1881. A PUBLIC GRIEVANCE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2378, 16 November 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 16, 1881. A PUBLIC GRIEVANCE.

The public have, we think, good causa to complain as to their treatment by that very exclusive and aristocratic body known as the Canterbury Jockey Club. These gentlemen, by a little judicious, wire-pulling in the Legislature, hava secured the use of a very valuable tract of land for the purposes of racing. But there is one peculiarity about them which I stands out in bold relief, and that is the total ignoring on their part of the fact that in this matter they are merely 1 trustees for the public, and that it was sever intended to make the racecourse the exclusive property of half-a-dozen I gentlemen and their friends. The members of the Jockey Club may bo of the bluest possible blood, the rentable sangre that wo hear of is connected with Spanish nobility, but they have no right to do as they have done, keep the people out of the enjoyment of an estate granted for their recreation. It is notorious that racing in Canterbury has steadily deteriorated in the opinion of other parts of the colony, from the fact of it being in the hands of this select few, but the crowning point has now been put upon it by their practically turning the Metropolitan Race Meeting into an exclusive amusement only to be participated in by those who can afford to pay the high tariff of admission purposely fixed to keep the vulgar herd from coming between the wind and the nobility of these —gentlemen. Had care been taken in the arrangements of the new stand, &C-, to effectually exclude all but a very small section of the community from being able to participate in the sport it could not have better succeeded. The convenience of the public—whose estate it is, and for whose benefit, ostensibly, the course was vested in these gentlemen—has been deliberately and purposely ignored, and instead of the races being, as they should be, what we may call a national holiday, they will become simply a gathering together of the few select ones who can afford to pay 10s per diem for leave to put foot inside the sacred enclosure. Wo contend that the man who pays his shilling or half-crown has a perfect right to as much accommodation, relatively, as those who pay their half-sovereign. Instead of that, what is the case ? Why, that the public are relegated on each side of the enclosure, to places where they can see but little, and are cognizant still less of what is going on. There must be, forsooth, a member’s carriage paddock taking up the best frontage to the course, a thing unheard of anywhere but in Canterbury. The only time at which these carriages are occupied is while the racing is temporarily suspended, and there is no reason in the world why the paddock should not bo in rear of the stand, or somewhere else, rather than occupying the place which should be devoted to the accommodation of the general public. The Legislature, in granting the privileges they have dono to this high and mighty body, known as the Canterbury Jockey Club, did so with the full understanding that fair and reasonable opportunity should be afforded to the public as a whole to participate in the sport. We have not the slightest objection to the Jockey Club fixing the rate of admission to the stand, &c., even higher than 10s per day. They have a perfect right so to do. This is not the point. They go further, and fence off the public to such an extent that it is utterly and completely impossible for any one who does not care to pay 10s per day to see the races in such a way as he is entitled to do. The members of the club are active enough in obtaining subscriptions from the general public for what? In order that they and their friends may enjoy a monopoly of the racing. Unless an alteration be speedily made, what is now known as the Metropolitan Meeting will have to be renamed and called the Select Few Race Meeting. We hope to see some expression of public opinion upon this subject, because there can bo no doubt that the course taken by the Jockey Club is a deliberate broach of trust, and an application to the Government or tho Legislature would soon bring them to their senses. If no steps are taken to alter the present most unsatisfactory arrangements, it will be as well to obtain from candidates for seats in tho Assembly a l promise that they will support a measure having for its object tho removal of the present trustees of tho course, and the appointment of others, a little more public spirited and less subservient to the clique who now rule tha destinies of racing in Canterbury.