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course to see jockeys constrained to sit on the floor in order to pull on their riding boots. The provision of seating accommodation is a minimum measure of comfort which should be provided. There is some need, too, to make provision whereby jockeys, weary or unwell, might he down between races. This is a facility not beyond the means,, practical or financial, of any racing club, and we recommend that it be adopted. APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM 215. No tenable criticism was addressed to the fairness, efficiency, and adequacy of the apprenticeship system, or to its administration. At Dunedin one witness, Crosby, in the course of evidence that was denunciatory of racing in New Zealand and its control generally, voiced the opinion that apprentices were ill trained, ill used, ill fed, and ill instructed. The testimony, however, was unrelated to specific instances and merely formed part of a general condemnation that might well have been provoked by hos'tility due to the witness himself having been disqualified for life, a disqualification which has been consistently maintained despite reiterated applications for reinstatement. 216. On the other hand, the quarters of the apprentices, their treatment, and training, are the subject of regular inspection by racecourse inspectors in the employ of the Conference, and the ex senior inspector testified that no criticism could be addressed to the system in any of these particulars. In addition, it seems obvious that if the conditions were in any respect open to condemnatory criticism, and certainly if they were open to the measure of criticism warranted by the allegations of Crosby, something would have been heard of them from Mr. Broughton, the president of the Jockeys' Association, or from other sources. 217. Our conclusion is that the accommodation of the apprentices, both as to housing, training, and treatment, must be reasonably adequate and proper ; certainly as to training, the criticism must be unfounded, for the system has produced all the leading jockeys of the past and present, and no justifiable criticism could be addressed to their competence as riders. One commendable feature in the existing apprenticeship system is the provision made for the protection of the financial interests of apprentices. Under this system one-half of the riding fees earned by each apprentice goes irrevocably to the apprentice's employer. The other half is held in trust for the apprentice. At the end of the apprenticeship, the accumulated fund, together with the interest earned by it, is paid to the apprentice. The arrangement has proved very beneficial to all apprentices, and some of more than normal ability have been paid considerable sums at the termination of their apprenticeship period. It is understood that as much as £2,000 was so paid in one instance.