EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7366, 14 November 1898, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The poor little lad, Archibald Macdonald, a light weight, sustained a broken and mangled leg, a brokeii collar bone, and a cracked skull. This is approximately the language used by the Christchurch Press in describing the pitiful event wkich marred the Canterbury Carnival week. But the victim of the latest race meeting has been disposed of by-the Coroner'a jury, and buriei, ■ and by most people forgotten;; Archibald ; Macdonald provided the sacrifice —the tribute to heartless greed and wantonness —for the year 1898. J Who will be the next ? Year after year the same sad story has to be told of mare children being . mangled to death in an endeavor to carry out the behests of their employers, yet the fatal game goes on. If it were suggested that this boy jockey system should be inhibited by legislation there would be an outcry, we suppose, that:the boys like it, and we should;be 1 pathetically asked as to whether we were going to allow a large section of our youth to be driven out of a healthful and lucrative occupation. There are occupations, however, that may more truthfully be thus described, and yet they are barred, because the safety of the individual is some consideration even in this sordid age. Powerful, alert men are not permitted by our laws to engage in bull-fights. The employment of children in coal mines and in other dangerous occupations is not allowed. If boys are to enter any occupation in which they can make money, no matter what may be its nature, then the whole aspect of society will be radically changed much for the worse and brutal instincts will dominate humanity. We are aware that boy jockeys are often so infatnated with the sport of horseracing that, when they have once engaged in it, they are not happy without the excitement which attends.it. A jockey who recently rode to his death in Australia mounted the horse in opposition to the will of his father, the owner of the animal. But it mnst be clear that in the matter of as in other things, it may be necessary, for the welfare of society, that people should be protected against the dangers of their own foolhardy or thoughtless propensities. It is especially necessary that the young should be guarded against that rashness which is the natural enough result of mental immaturity, or the seductive gold of the horse-owner. We are convinced i that the rough-and-tumble arena of the racecourse is no place for any boy upon whose life, or health, or morals any body sets any value, and that if people will have horse-racing, owners should ride their own horses. It is certain that, if this were the rule, the racehorse would be useful for some other purpose than the carrying of a half-starved attenuated stripling on its back, for owners, for the most part, would take very good care to bring their horses' carrying capacity up to their own weight instead of reducing themselves to the shadowy proportions I of the light-weight jockey who now does their hazardous work for them.