COURTS DECISION

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 148, 13 September 1927, Page 12

COURTS DECISION

WAS IT A FARCE? LENIENCY OF SENTENCE THE lenient treatment meted out to the two men found guilty of corrupt practices in the trotting turf of Australia recently makes it plain that in such affairs the JusI tice Department does not want to be concerned about the business. It will mean in future that those governing and controlling the sport of racing and trotting will deal promptly and severely with those I guilty of such malpractice. The trotting authorities in Australia and in New Zealand must feel somewhat crushed over the sentence imposed upon Walter McCarthy and William Mathieson, who were associated in the ringing-in of the pacing mare Promenade as Gathered Gold. All told the speedy daughter of Lcgan Pointer and Queen’s Drive visited three States in Australia, where she found no difficulty in effecting the coups planned for her. When placed under suspicion at Perth the telegraph wires conveyed messages of a sensational discovery to all parts of Aus-

tralasia. The mare eventually vas identified and taken to Sydney under police escort. Arrests followed and several members of the trotting sport and of the detective department at Sydney and Auckland crossed the water. A STAGGERER As the case progressed the evidence seemed to become so convincing regarding the ringing-in of the mare that a majority of people became reconciled to the fact that it was only a question of how severe the penalties would be. ** But when the news arrived from Sydney stating that McCarthy and Mathieson were only bound over to appear for sentence if called upon at any time within two years, the trotting world, figuratively speaking, fell to pieces like a house of cards. The decision of the court left every - one breathless —there was no more to be said. A LESSON TAUGHT From the manner in which the law treated the case a lesson is to be learned. To start with, it is plain that the Justice Department in Australia, at any rate, is not a bit concerned about malpractices or contravention of rules of sport. And while it has inflicted ! a sentence upon McCarthy and Mathie- I son (one can hardly call it such) the j legal authorities have as good as told j the trotting officials that it does not j want to waste time over people trans- | gressing their rules, and that in future' they would be well advised to control i their sjjprt and inflict whatever penalties they think offenders of their rules deserve. The New Zealand law courts have, on occasions, displayed more interest in cases where persons have endeavoured to obtain money by ringing-in horses, but even in the Dominion there is an impression that those holding the scales of justice are not particularly keen on deliberating on matters appertaining to the turf. TURF RULERS MUST PENALISE They know that both sports have wide powers, and it is obvious that those presiding at the various law courts realise that the penalties which the turf authorities can impose on a member are sufficient to damn offenders for ever. As a well-known and prominent owner remarked the other day, it would be well if the rafting and trotting organisations dealt with offenders as each case demands. All infringements of the rules are offences against the sport, not against the civil laws of the country. Hence transgressors of turf rules should be dealt with onlv byturf authorities.