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non-totalizator meetings. All these meetings were registered with (he Trotting Association. The club is registered, 'flic last meeting was held in October, 19,14. A list of the present members of the club and a copy of the club's last balance-sheet have been forwarded. We will race on the reserve known as the Timaru Racecourse Reserve, on which the South Canterbury Jockey Club hold their meetings. The ci reuniferenco of the course is 8 furlongs. Being a racecourse reserve, we will have a tenure for all time. The accommodation consists of stewards' stands, totalizator-house, scraping-shed, accommodation for horses attending the race meetings. A newgrandstand and tea-kiosk is a( present in course of erection at the cost of £3,000. At present (here is a racecourse railed. In the event of a permit being granted we will lay down a 6-furlong course, using part of the racing-track, and will fence the whole with a. cap-rail. The nearest club using the totalizator is fifty-three miles distant. There are no dubs round about which hold trotting meetings without a permit. The history of the club as far as the present members are concerned dates back as fat- as 1909 ; but as mentioned previously the Timaru Trotting Club was formed in 1888, and raced for about ten years with a. fair amount of success. We held our first trotting meeting in January, 1909. A programme of six races was drawn out with prizemoney totalling £185, and brought a record field for a small non-totalizator meeting. There were 114 nominations and 102 acceptances. This meeting was held on the racecourse proper. The second meeting was held twelve months later, and on the same course, but instead of the main course being used a first-class track had been made. Another meeting was held in May on the same place, and the fourth meeting of the club was held just before the bookmaker was abolished. Out of the four meetings we gave away in stakes £965, made up as follows : First meeting, £185; second meeting, £235; third meeting, £255; fourth meeting, £290. After the first meeting we purl on an extra race, making seven races for the remaining three meetings. The nominations and acceptances received for each meeting were as follows: 1909—nominations 114, acceptances 162; 191.0—nominations 106, acceptances 95; 191 I—--nominations 118, acceptances 75; I.9l2—nominations 100, acceptances 93: totals, nominations 438, acceptances 365. These meetings were all held during the time bookmakers were legalized, with the result that we were able to make a profit of £175. Our meeting w r as cv( out by the Racing Commission in favour of Oamaru We might here point out the injustice of the Commission in respect of these two clubs. We had run four meetings, had a first-class 6-furlong track' on a racecourse with all conveniences. Oamaru, who had a track of their own, in the same length of time had been able to run only one meeting, the others having to be abandoned owing to the small support and the bad weather. If we had been given a permit we would have been in a better position than Oamaru is to-day. On the population basis we should have a permit. Oamaru and district, with a population of 17,670, has one; Ashburton and district, with a population of 14,984, has two; Timaru and •district, with a population of 35.623, has none. You can see for yourself what an injustice has been done to the district. The country round about is really good for the breeding of the utility horse, and at the time the trotting meeting was in existence a. number of first-class stallions and blood mares had come and were, coining into the district. Lately the sport of trotting has gone ahead again, and on making inquiries we find that there are about a hundred owners with 270 horses, and that there are some twenty stallions in the South Canterbury district between the Rangitata and the Waitaki. You will notice if you peruse the race-books of the following meetings—Waimate. Kurow. Geraldine, and Ashburton—which have trotting races on their programmes, that you can average twenty-five nominations and twenty starters in each race, which will-go to show how trotting is supported in and around Timaru. A further argument thai we should be granted a permit is the unanimous report of all papers that the South Canterbury Regiment of the Expeditionary Force is the best mounted regiment in the South Island, and the Government are drawing very heavily on the district for remounts to fill quotas of other districts. Looking through the race-books of metropolitan meetings you will find the following horses bred in South Canterbury : Jingle. Wild Barm, Crown Prince, Centrewood, Schoolgirl, Opihi, Noreen, Princess Minto, Kinetic, Croesus, Andy Regan, King Lvnne, Quinaldine. These few horses will give you an idea of the quality the district has produced, and it would lie safe to say that if a permit should be granted the standard of the horse now in the district would be still further raised. The membership of the club stands at 138 members, which with the granting of a permit would mean an increase to 250 members at least. Before the bookmakers were abolished we had two days' racing in the year. Oamaru had one in two years. Ashburton had four days, and had a totalizator permit for each day : and comparing balance-sheets Timaru comes out most favourably, our club showing a, profit on all meetings, By the Deputation. —What is looked upon as South Canterbury is the district between the Rangitata, and Waitaki Rivers, right back to Mount Cook. We have much close settlement, and we think it is a right thing to encourage trotting-horses for the benefit of farmers and their families who cannot afford to buy motor-cars. We have a well-equipped racecourse to enable trotting to be carried on in a proper way. We have had very great success with our meetings. We have a bank balance- of something like ,£2OO after paying all accounts. We think a permit will greatly encourage the breeding of good horses in the district. We have already something like a hundred trotting-stallion owners in the district. Southland Trotting Club, The headquarters of the club are at Invercargill. The club was formed in the early "nineties,'' but owing lo the hard limes experienced in Southland (owards Ihe end of that decade the sport of trotting and racing suffered, and in company with several hack-racing clubs the totalizator permit was allowed to lapse. On the 23rd June, 190!), the present -constituted club was formed.

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