TROTTING

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1931, Page 2

TROTTING

BOARD OF CONTROL. ANNUAL MEETINC. The annual meeting of the New Zealand Trotting Association was held at Christchurch on '.I u.esday evening, the president, Mr J. H. Wi I lias, being in the chair. ANNUAL REPORT. The annual report of the president contained the following:— The season just closed has not been without its vicissitudes of fortune, While Now Zealand is sharing the world-wide depre.-sion, it is happily n,>t suffering so acutely as a larger country, where the population of its cities outnumbers that of this little Dominion. Speaking of clubs many are in a precarious position, and, although compelled to abandon for the time being their race meetings, have not lost hope of better days. Strugal ng under heavy taxation, they have striven to provide the best class of sport, and in most cases attendances at their meeting were in the circumstances, satisfactory. At the same time the general strigency in the financial position seriosly affected the totalisatr returns. ADMINISTRATION WORK. I again congratulate the members upon the fair and impartial manner in which they have dealt with the different matters brought before them. Tnere were only three protests against the judges’ placings—out of a total of 750 races decided during the year—and such protests were "dismissed by the Judicial committees of the clubs concerned.

There were three cases of appeal t - the Association from clubs’ findings. In one of them the club disqualified a driver for pulling his horse, and also for giving false evidence. He applied for a rehearing on the ground of fresh evidence being avai’able. His application was granted, and tbe club threw out the charge of puding, and imposed three months’ disqualification, and inflicted a fine of £2O on the other charge Against this the driver appealed to the Association. As the charge of giv.ng false evidence arose out of the hearing of the charge of pulling, which the club did not sustain, the Association in the circumstances, considered that the ends of justice would be met by endorsing the club’s action in irflirt ng the fine, but removing the disqualification. Another case of appeal was where the club, having sustained a charge of boring reversed the placing of the first and second horses. The owner of the first horse appealed, as he considered that any boring did not intefere with the other house. Upon the evidence/ submitted the appeal' was allowed. Wherever possible, rt is"" always the Board’s desire to uphold the findings of clubs, but in this case it could not see fit to do so,

HANDICAPPING OF AUSTRALIAN HORSES,

As the' result of recent legis’&tjon at the annual Conference provision has now been made whereby the band capping system is controlled by a committee, with power to a’ter or add to the table of limitation of penalties and to make regulations regarding, any other matters in relation to handicapping. Concerning the handicapping of horses imported from Australia the Associa tion had, prior to the 1930 Conference recommended certain scale of. penal ties, and so as to mak it binding en deavoured to bring in.a rule at that year’s Conference seeking power to make regulations in regrad to the bads upon which imported horses shou'd be handicapped, in New Zealand. This the Conference threw out. Ti e committee of the conference has now reimposed the penalties in a slightly modified form. As was the case last year all the proposals but one for amendments to the rules put forward by the Associa tion were carried' and, I wish here to congratulate your vice-president (Mr 4. W. Kitchingham) who, in my abser. •■», represented the Association at the Conference. It was pleasing to note in an editorial review >of trotting last &• usoti that, “While owners, breeders, trainers and club officials have done their utmost to keep the sport on a pedestal a word of congratulation is due to the administrators of the sport, the New Zealand Trotting Association, composd

of a body of keen trotting enthusiasts, in whom all connected with tbe sport have impliet confidence. The work done by the Association is tremendous. Under tbe present control tbe light- harness sport will continue to grow in popularity.” STUD BOOK. After a lapse of live years a fresh volume of the New Zealand Trotting Stud Book lias been published, it is fully twice the size of any previous volume, and geat praise is due to ihe compiler, Mr W. H. Larcombe, for his research and work, which is universally acknowledged a great success. Our thanks are also due to the members ot the Stud Book Committee (.Messrs. H. W. Kitchingham and D. H. Roberts), as well to the editors of various news papers throughout the Dominion, who rendered valuable assistance. Yol. IN is of special interest, as it is up-to-date and contains a number cf features which were not embodied in tbe previous volumes. BALANCE-SHEET.

The usual items in tbe ba ance-sheet of the Association for the year just closed do not differ much from th se of last year. There was a slight increase in. some cases and a decrease in others, particularly in the matter of licenses granted to trainers and horsemen, there being about 150 less app i-ca-nts as compared with last year. The usual disbursements did not vary much with the exception of travelling expenses, which decreased by well over £IOO.

The Provident Fund is in a healthy position, the interest alone having in ro than covered the claims,. and the income for the twelve months exceeded the expenditure by over £IOOO. The accumulated fund is now well over £BOOO which is held in trust for licensed trainers and horsemen who meet with accidents. CHANGES ON THE BOARD. We were all sorry to lose the services of Mr Geo MacMillan, of Auckland who resigned from the Board some months ago, and we miss his genial company. We were, however, fortunate in that Mr B. McCarthy, of Hawera, tilled the vacancy. It is with much regret that I have to refer to the death of one of our number—Mr R. A. Armstrong—who had been a North Island member of» tbe Board for eleven years. He was a man of strong will, a splendid advocate, and one who will be much missed at our gatherings. He was also oreudeir of the Wellington Trotting Club, and the good position that the club is in to-day is due very largely to his efforts which be never spared for its welfare. Tbe thanks of tbe Board are due to the secretary and bis' staff for tbe efficient manner in which they have carried on the Association’s affairs . The receipts for the year were £2 91 16s 4d, and the expenditure £2440 4s Bd, leaving a credit balance of £sl 11s 6d. ' w>: 'Mr' ,, W. wWd" i bit te to the work of the staff. He was of the opinion that if District Committees were instituted there would not be any uniformity in tbe control of the sp rt and the expense would be out of all proportion as compared with that of the Association. ELECTION OF OFFICERS. The following members were re-elect-ed to the Board: Messrs S. W. Kelly and B. McCarthy (North Island), W. Hayward, H. W. Kitchingham, and J. B. Thomson (South Island.)