Trotting Meetings.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3369, 25 November 1889, Page 2

Trotting Meetings.

(Eoferce.) The end and aim of tho Colot nial Secretary in the administration of the powers conferred upon him by tho Gaming and lotteries, 4gt \yjll l)e fltlic;: to encopga tfqtting by giving to it the use of the lotalisuior, or the revcrso, According to what wo under. ' stand from the Colonial Secretary's latest decision, permits will be granted in future to any trotting clubs whoso meetings are approved of by tho Metropolitan Trotting Association in any provincial district, bu.t jn all oases Huto ijy of tl-e itnlea of Iking will kvo to be complied with. That is to say that no club shall be allowed to have more than Ijve meetings a year; that uuy club holding uioro than three meetings, in tho year shall give an average of at least f'oOO per deim in stakes; that any club holding three meetings in the year will giic an average of at least 4400 per diem in stakes; that any club holding two meetings a year shall give an average of at loast £2OO per diem in stakes; that any club holding one meeting in the year shall give a sum not less than £IOO. per diem in stakes, This should effectually prevent tho abuse of the totulisator. We have always been supporters of trotting meetings to a certain o*tent,whoi» carried out on legitimate grounds—thut is to say when hold under tho auspices of properly constiuted clubs. What wo object to is the bolstering up and fostering, by the aid of the totulisator, of proprietary clubs-clnbu run by men who really live by the profits of the meetings, men who "run" meetings, win ' ibe principals events with their own horses entered in some one else's ■ name, and otherwise nncrupulously rob tlie too-confiding public. This class ■ of ipoii simply gq to trots, and follow them up for the sole purpose of making their living out of tliem, and not , for the .sake of any sport likely to be qbtained, Our opinions on this phase of trotting have often houn expressed in these columns, and are pretty well known, Legitimate sport of all kinds will always have our support, but f sport of the kind to be found at some { trotting meetings in tho colony will ) always receive our condemnation, [ The Colonial Secretary must discrim- i irate betwoen the good and the bid. I If hi is to rely upon the recommenda s tion of a governing body for trotting, ' ho must, likewise, look to it that Buch c institution is not composed entirely of < interested jievs'QUß, t