RACE MEETINGS ACT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 810, 5 March 1910, Page 3

RACE MEETINGS ACT.

THE NEW REGULATIONS

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER.

All licenses granted under the Race Meetings Act, 1909, will be granted under, and subject to, the following conditions; — 1. Every application for a license under the said Act shall be addressed to the

Minister for Internal Affairs,

and shall be in the Form No. i in the Schedule hereto, or to the like effect. 2. Before granting any such application the Minister for Internal Affairs will refer the application for consideration and report to a Stipendiary Magistrate exercising jurisdiction in the district in which race meetings are proposed to be held by the racing club making that application. 3. Upon the receipt of the report and recommendation of the Stipendiary Magistrate, the Minister for Internal Af-

fairs will consider the same, and may thereupon grant or refuse the license as he thinks

4. Every license so granted will be in the Form No. 2 in the Schedule hereto, or to the like effect.

5. No license will be granted to any racing club for the holding of more than two race meetings in any one racing year. 6. No license will be granted for the holding of any race meeting which extends over more than one day, except that where only one race meeting is authorised to be held in any racing year that race meeting may be authorised by the license to extend over two days.

7. The term "racing year” means a period of twelve months, commencing on the ist day of August in each year. 8, Nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the Minister for Internal Affairs from imposing on the issue of any license any other conditions which he thinks fit in the particular case.

Referring to the regulations, the Hon. D. Buddo informed a Dominion reporter that they would come into force on April 1. The intention of the Act was to do away with race meetings whose management was not representative of a district, as, for instance, proprietary clubs. In dealing with applications for permits the proximity of clubs which were granted the use of a totalisator would be considered. It was not intended to withhold a permit from a club which could show that a proposed meeting was a district meeting, and was controlled by a district managing committee. Under the regulations a magistrate would be asked to give an opinion as to whether or not it would be a proper thing to grant an application, but his recommendation might not necessarily be followed. As would be remembered, the holding of an illegal meeting rendered not only the management, but also the spectators, liable to a penalty.