LABOUR DAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 116, 6 August 1927, Page 8

LABOUR DAY

Sir. — The Hon. R. F. Bollard’s action in countering the Racing Conference’s decision to allow Hamilton Racing Club to hold its meeting on Labour Day must have all racing men thinking seriously just at present. To understand the position, one must either be closely connected with racing or be guided by those that are, whose judgment can be relied on, this being purely a matter for racing men and not for politicians. Everyone considers that to give the Minister of Internal Affairs the right to veto is all in the interest of sport, but for him to reverse the decision of the conference must be considered drastic. As a racing man I c annot consider a hunt club and racing club on the same footing. The time has now arrived for

the conference to define and make law the objects which were intended when hunt clubs were first instituted. Although I cannot always hold with the conference in its decisions, I consider that in this case it did the right thing in wishing the hunt club to give way to a racing club. Had the Minister questioned some of the other decisions the conference arrived at, racing men would perhaps have thought he was a fit person to have the final say where racing is concerned. One cannot help thinking that it would be in the interests of sport if it were free of political influence. Therefore it is up to the racing men of this country to look for and send the right men to the conference, and regain the confidence of the powers that be. F.C.G.