SUSPENSION OF RACING.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 November 1915, Page 6

SUSPENSION OF RACING.

PRESIDENT RESIGNS POSITION. At a special meeting of the Poverty Bay Trotting Club on Thursday the president, Dr. Charles F. Scott, suggested that (hey should drop trotting for the duration of the war. The country was looking for a lead from mature men, and so long as mature men and people remaining at home allowed pleasures and enjoyment to go on so long would young men continue to be lulled into a position of false security. The country was not doing as well as it should do in recruiting, and he for one would not give support to racing while the war lasted. The meeting decided to continue racing, and the president thereupon resigned.

AN APPEAL FOR ABOLITION*. At the annua! district synod of the Methodist Church at Christelnirch the following resolution was carried:—"This synod, recognising the claims which the Empire has upon the purse and best manhood of the Dominion in the present crisis, views with grave concern the continuation of horse-racing and gambling. The fact that more than £300,000 passed through the totalisator during the recent carnival week in Christchurch, is of itself most impressive. The synoA is convinced that such an orgy of racing and betting is opposed to the best interests of the nation at any time, but especially so during the currency of a gjreat and pitiless war, and believes that racing and the totalisator are preventing many eligible men from enlisting, as well as swallowing up large sums of money, which would he better spent in helping the various war funds. The synod, therefore, appeals to the authorities to abolish horse-racing throughout the Dominion until the end of the war."