CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1086, 13 June 1882, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

[JYe do not hold ourselves responsible for opinions expressed l>y our correspondents.] TO THE EDITOR. Str, —The wager made by Air Proffitt with myself having received a certain amount of general notoriety I am desirous of letting the public know the actual facts, and the correspondence attached will I think give good proof of tho treatment I have been subjected to. On the day following the Whit Monday races at Makaraka, in consequence of Air Proffitt having refused to settle with me, I sent the following to the Herald : —“ A Proffit-able Wager.—To the Public.—l was standing near the entrance to tho enclosure yesterday, when the Forced Handicap was being run, and as tho horses entered the straight Mr Proffitt offered one hundred sovereigns to five pounds The Squire would win. 1 accepted the wager and held in my hand the necessary “ fiver.” Air Proflit did not produce tho hundred, but exclaimed “ it’s u bet.” There were three persons present whose names I will forward to the Stewards, who can bear me out in my statement. Air Proffitt, after tho race had been concluded, when asked for the money talked punching, and emphatically gave me to understand he would not pay. Whether this sort of belling pays him or not, 1 shall endeavour to discover.—l am, etc., Henry Maynard.” This letter if not actually refused was not published, but in the same issue in which I expected my letter to appear there was the following local:—“The race for the Forced Handicap, at the Makaraka race meeting yesterday, was a capital one. In this instance, as is often the case when a handicap is pretty square and even, the race was won more by horsemanship than anything else. Just as Morning Star, Cat, and Squire were coming into the straight, all in a cluster, Mr Proffitt offered to lay £1(X) to £5 that The Squire would be the winner. Fortunately for him no one took the wager, as The Squire did not respond when his rider called on him.” Next day I wrote again to the Herald contradicting the statement made by that paper. This letter was promised insertion, but instead of its , being published, in a “ Notice to Correspondents ” appeared the following:—“ Henry Afaynard : Your letter cannot be inserted until the matter complained about comes up before

the Stewards, and they have reviewed tho whole of the circumstances.” I then wrote to the Stewards after settling night as follows: — “ Gisborne, 30th Alay, 1882. —To the Stewards of the late Alakarr.ka Race Meeting.—Gentlemen, —I most respectfully ask that you will decide a variance which at present exists between Air Proffitt—Air A. AlcDonald’s manager—and myself. I made a wager with him about the Forced Handicap as the horse? entered the straight. I won it, and asked for the money, and was refused. 1 have witnesses who I would like to have heard after making to you a personal explanation. All that I ask is, to bo heard, to prove I am correct, and to submit to your decision.—l am, etc., Henry Maynard.” There being no quorum present, the Secretary for the Race Aleeting wrote to me as follows : —“ Alakaraka, 31st May, 1882. Air 11. Maynard.—Sir,—ln reply to your favor dated this day, 1 have to inform you that I have called a meeting of the Stewards of the Makaraka Race Meeting that are present this evening, and they hare decided that as they do not form a quorum they cannot decide the variance between yourself and Air Proffitt at this meeting. At your request I will call a meeting of the Stewards and lay your complaint before them.—l am, etc., A. Davif, Secretary Makaraka Race Meeting.” The Secretary lias since informed mo that the Stewards decline to notice tho matter in any way. Is this fair ? Is it honest ? Had I lost the wager would not Air Proffitt have sought for my fiver ? And if he had not lost it would a “friend of the stable” have come to me (as I can prove one did) and have offered me first £5 and then £6 to square the trouble. Trusting you will give me a fair show so that the public may not bo led away into thinking I am attempting to extort money and permit me to express my willingness to submit the matter to arbitration.—l am, etc., Henry Maynard. [We quite agree with the Herald that the papers were not justified in taking notice of this matter until the Stewards had been appealed to. V7e also refused.— Ed. P.B.S.]