THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1882. THE HANDICAPPING COMMITTEE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2512, 26 April 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1882. THE HANDICAPPING COMMITTEE.

We presume the result of the election yesterday of two members to fill the vacancies on the C.J.C. Handicapping Committee must be taken to endorse our views on the subject already expressed. It is strange lhat this should occur 011 the same day that a total reversal o£ the prediction made by " One of the public " as regards Mr Griffith's handicap for the Tiraaru Cup came about. It will be remembered that this champion of Messrs. Lance and Stead indirectly, but directly as the advocate of handicapping by committee, stated his conviction, arrived at by a series of intricate calculations, that under Mr. Griffith's arrangement of the weights Emir Bey must win, and pointed this as a terrible moral in favor of the committee doing the work. As it happens, however, the chivalrous correspondent was just as much out in this as he was in his comprehension of the question at issue, because Mr. Lance's Envy filly won the Tiinaru Cup. Thus, if we accept the arguments put forth by " One of the Pablic " as the reason why committee handicapping should be substituted, the whole fabric falls to pieces, because it has been constructed on wrong premises. However, this is, by the way, because the question of committee versus individual handicapping is now on its trial. We are perfectly content with the committee as now constituted, because all owners or connections of owners are excluded, and we are perfectly willing, though entirely opposed to the system, that handicapping by a committee should have a full and fair trial. In this we differ from our our contemporary, " The Canterbury Times," which advocated the allowing of a committee, on which owners and their friends had a preponderance, to frame the Spring Handicaps. Tha question we propounded in a former article has not, we regret to see, yet been answered, though in the true interests of sport in Canterbury, it is most essential that it should bs. We allude to the making of fjie Handicap of the year the C.J.C. We put it pretty strongly before that an assurance should be given that Messrs Lance and Stead, under all the circumstances should state, or have it stated for them, that they have not made this handicap, and we will give our reasons foe

to doing. The owners in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland would not, under the circumstances of their opponents in nearly every event apportioning the weights for the visitiug horses—and their own—have entered for our spring meeting, at any rate very largely. Now, happily for racing in Canterbury, this has been altered, but as we have pointed out, and as clearly put before the public by Mr G. P. Williams, tho date for the appearance of the 0.J.0. Handicap •weights is close at hand, and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the two gentlemen who havo rotired from the committee may have in some way formed these. There would, we desire at once to say, be nothing wrong had they done so, and wo are not in a position to say they have. But, on the other hand, we have no evidence they have not; and this uncertainty simply means that unless it is distinctly stated that the weights, when they appear, have been framed by the new committee, the local horses will bo left to a large extent to fight the battle _ out between them, thus depriving in a great measure the race of its interest to the public. This we think must be apparent even to the most superficial observer. We contend it is the duty of the C.J.O. after what has occurred, and knowing as they do the feeling of visiting owners, particularly in the South, to state explicitly that the C.J.C. Handicap weights will be issued by the new committee who will take the responsibility of them. _ If this is done the uneasy feeling which now exists will be swept away. We once more urge upon the club in the interests of sport to take this matter into their earnest consideration, and to carefully weigh tho reasons wo have put before them. The members are to bo congratulated upon tho fact that they have yielded to public opinion, and we take no little credit to ourselves for having in a humble way been the means of preventing a step which we cannot but feel would have done almost irreparable harm , to racing here. OUR STREETS. I

From time to time, both in the shape of letters from private individuals and newspaper articles, attention has been drawn to what cannot but be termed the wholesale destruction of our streets by the operations of the Drainage Board. The bad weather season is approaching, and we shall find that instead of our streets being as they ought to be, from the amount of money expended on them, in a fit state for traffic, that tho works alluded to have converted them into perfect quagmires. It has been asserted—we are not prepared to say with what truth—that the metal placed on the roads at the cost of the ratepayers has been, in many instances, carted away, leaving in its stead only earth. Some confirmation of this has been afforded during the latter period of the summer, when the streets in which the Drainage Board works have been carried on were, during the nor'westers, filled with clouds of dust, whore before such had not been the case. This being so, it behoves the City Council to take such steps as will ensure the streets being restored to their original condition; not alone as to levels—which, by the way, seems to have been the only care—but also as to their capacity to carry the traffic. If we are not very much mistaken, should the approaching winter turn out to be at all wet, some of the streets of Christchurch will be in a worse condition than they ever were before, not even excepting the duration of the reign of the Dirt and Darkness Club. Our object in thus drawing attention to the matter is that, if the condition of the streets be such as it is said to be, immediate steps may be taken to remedy it. To wait until winter has fairly set in, and then commence to patch up the streets by shooting a barrowful of metal into this and that hole, is simply ridiculous and a waste of the ratepayers' money. What therefore should be done without delay is to obtain from the City Surveyor a detailed report on the present state of the streets through which the works of the Drainage Board have passed, as compared with what they were prior to being opened by the contractors for the Board. With this before them the Council will be in a position either to call on the Drainage Board to make good where it is found necessary, or to do the work and charge the Board with it. We hope that no delay will be allowed to take place in this matter, because, if there is, wo shall find some of our streets, particularly beyond what may be called the central block, almost impassable during the winter. LOCAL OPTION.

It ecareely seems, taking tho varioas returns of tho voting under the local option clansea in thosn districts already decided, that there was that overwhelming desire for the scheme which wo were led to expect. Indeed, in the very stronghold of temperance—the one place, above all others, which has been held np as a model of virtue and sobriety to other boroughs, viz , Sydenham—the result has be' n to sanction the increase of licenses. This scarcely seems to square with the fervid declamations of temperance orators as to the thousands who wore panting to exercise the glorious privilege of local option. So far from this being so, had it not been to the interest of the present bolders of liconses, for very obvious reasons, to join their forces with the temperance advocates, it is exceedingly doubtful whether they would have scored a victory at all. This, with several other notable features of tho absurdity of tho local option clauses, soems to us to point in the direction of a total failure to effect the purpose for which they were designed. Let us just give one instance of the utter indili'orence with which this much sought after boon is treated in some parts of the colony. Tho " Otago Daily Times " records that at the polling held for the Blueskin district, where there wore 40S ratepayers on the roll entitled to vote, only two voted. Our contemporary proceeds as follows : —" These two were of divided opinions as regards the increase of publicans' and accommodation liconses; one thought an increase desirable, the other didn't. But as regards wine and bottle licenses, the two voters were entirely unanimous, and they in all gravity settled, on behalf of the 406 who were careless of thair glorious pr'vilogp, that no such licenses were to be issued within the district of Blueskin during the next three years. This is redact io ad absurdum with a vengeance." Yet we have been told, time after time, that there were hundreds of ratepayers anxious to exercise their privilege. We think the most ardent temperance reformer will agree with us that the local option clauses have been a most unmitigated failure, and the sooner they are repealed the better for the people as a whole.