THE RACING COMMISION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3251, 23 June 1911, Page 2

THE RACING COMMISION.

POSITION IN AUCKLAND

HON. E. MITCHELSON’S- VIEWS.

[SPECIA.Ii TO TIKES.] AUCKLAND, June 21. The Hon. E. Mitcheison, president of the Auckland Racing Club, when seen by a reporter in ieference to tiie recommendations of the racing commission, remarked after considering the curtailments of permits, that it appeared to him to be quite a fair thing to reduce the racing clays at Auckland to the number allowed to Christchurch. He had felt certain that Auckland would lose one day, if not two, and it would not have been an equitable arrangement, to make a reduction in the provincial districts, and at the same time leave the city club with the thirteen days’ racing previously existing up to the present. It was also a just determination to place the Takapuna and Avondale Clubs on an equal footing by allocating four days to each club, though it meant depriving the former of three racing days. He was thoroughly in sympathy with the desire to cater for the country districts as far as practicable and in conservation of the interests of the club generally, “Auckland, with a population of over 250,000, has only the same number of days of racing, excluding eleven days trotting as (Hawke’s Bay with a population of only 56,000,” pointed out the pressman.

“Of course, that is absurd,” promptly remarked Mr Mitcheison, who further indicated that on a population ' basis Auckland, with a quarter of the population of the whole Dominion, was fully entitled to more days’ racing than those allocated. “On the whole the recommendations seem to be a fair arrangement,” admitted Mr Mitcheison, “with the exception that the question of population should have been taken into consideration, but Auckland has been not so badly treated.”

Questioned as to what the result would be as affecting the Club’s programme, by the curtailment of two days, Mr Mitcheison said that no doubt there would be an adjustment all round, and speaking for himself lie thought the stakes would remain as at •present. The difficulty was that the Government tax was enormous, as taking as it does £7168 from the Auckland Club alone, it was a big amount to extract from one club.