THE ORAWAITI RACECOURSE.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 588, 2 December 1869, Page 2

THE ORAWAITI RACECOURSE.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sib, —I perceive with astonishment, not unmixed with indignation, in your issue of to-day, a notice from Mr Jones, of the Orawaiti Hotel, forbidding all persons, tinder the extreme penalty of the law, from visiting or in any way inspecting the racecourse, recentlylaid out by him, until the day appointed for the races to take place. Now surely Mr Jones must think the public blind or daft if he imagines that they will tamely submit to this strange proceeding. Now, Mr Editor, as a large subscriber to the race fund, now in the hands of the Jockey Club, I beg to bo permitted to ask a few questions through the medium of your widely circulated paper. Is it not the public who have liberally contributed to the race fund ? By what right then are the public excluded from the course until Mr Jones issues further orders ? Is he afraid or ashamed that it should be seen ? Is the course now or ever likely to be in a fi*: state for public scrutiny ? Or does it so abound with swamp and stumps that it is far more likely to furnish abundant employment for our medical men in the shape of plastering broken heads, and setting disjointed limbs, than to form a pleasant recreationground for pleasure-seekers ? By finding space for the above, Mr Editor, you will not only oblige me but many others. Pr/BLicus. [Our correspondent writes under a misapprehension as to the object of Mr Tom Jones's advertisement as to trespassing on the racecourse. In the first place, we believe Mr Jones is not responsible for the original wording of the advertisement, and, in the second place, we may say that Mr Jones wishes merely to prevent trespass by persons on horseback—a very reasonable wish, we should say. Jones would be no longer Jones if he wished to deter people from visiting the Orawaiti, or even from taking a hand at the plough, or from killing pigs, or from assisting in stump extraction, to say nothing of what anybody is at liberty to do at his bar. It is obviously a " fetch " of our correspondent's imagination to suppose that Tom Jones forbids persons from " visiting or in any way inspecting the racecourse." Probably " Publicus," by personally visiting the ground, would discover the truth, as well as satisfactory answers to his questions, and suffer less from bile than he apparently does at present.]