Hokitika Guardian & Eveing Star MONDAY, JULY 15th, 1918. RACING IN WAR TIME.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1918, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Eveing Star MONDAY, JULY 15th, 1918. RACING IN WAR TIME.

Tkb altitude of Ihe Racing Confcrem-ii in coinfection with racing in war time was fully dealt with by the President of the Conference (Sir George Clifford) in his presidcntul address last week. The president stated that the meeting that day hacf nearly brought then) to

the fourth anniversary of the first blow j struck by Germany in her crime-stained j attempt, to force a despotic yoke upon us. 15 dent less war with far worse than the traditional horrors of war still persecutes the world. Every Briton worthy of the name has striven to bear his individual part in the universal resistance, and all sections of tho community have vied with each other in collective endeavours. The exceptions are branded with an indelible shame. In this common effort the racing organisation ' of the Dominion lias borne its conspicuous shave Enemies of racing have told us that our continuance of it during war time is n heart-loss mockery—tfo retort, that it is a bounden duty. The supply of chargers is essential to the equipment of. an army even where the modern motor-driven tanks and aircraft are available. Examples of this are frequent in recent operations in France, Palestine,' and Mesopotamia. and only an ignoramus would deny the- necessity of the racecourse test for the effective horsing of cavalry. All the warring Governments have had the thought to j preserve the cream of the turf for this i purpose, and, net least, our shroud adversaries. Every conceivable preparation for future wars .is ever in their minds, and they know well that equine courage, and endurance are quantities only obtainable by the use of thorough- , bred sires. While racing is thus os- ! sential to complete military efficiency, } we claim for it that it presents no obstruction to war work, and that if offeis jnn antidote to the dangerous gloom engendered by continuous foreboding of possible and impossible disasters, and 1 that the large and ungrudged revenue derived from it is of material assistance to the Treasury. As to the last consideration, it is calculated that racing clubs have maid in taxation for this season, about. £190.000. Voluntary donation’s since the. outbreak of war probably exceed £IOO,OOO, and the subscriptions to war loans, £-'O,OOO. The taxation paid during the' past four years will have reached and probably exceeded £640,000, and that it- lias not amounted to a still greater sum is the fault of the Government, and not of the clubs. We have readily submitted to the temporary curtailment of the days of racing, hut we fail to understand why access to courses should be purposely made difficult when it is perfectly obvious that the railways are sacrificing a very highly profitable business for no perceptible or disclosed advantage. We have opponents—some are curiously self-persuaded that we aro the central figures of a nest of iniquity. With these imaginative gentlemen, who have probably rarely, if* ever, trod a racecourse in their lives and who consider it not unseemly to utilise the war for furthering their unreasoning hostility wc cannot deal. Argument and proof are equally ineffective with the uuconvinciblv ignorant. There are, however others who aro honestly unconviced that good and not evil accrues from the present redng-T have already said something on this head, hut I piopo.-w to ask you in committee to work into practical shape, a proposal to devote all clear profits of all racing clubs for the duration of the war to war purposes. This would bo more than any other institution has achieved, and will answer those of our friends who may have doubts about the expediency of our perseverance. They may also have foi- ! gotten that owners of tho racing stables j owe it to men who have been in their service, perhaps for many years,'perhaps for a lifetime, not to out of! suddenly their moans of subsistence.