Page:1930 QLD Royal Commission into Racing Report.djvu/57

57 Limited. He represents Coorparoo. Mr. Lawrence, manager of Kedron, represents Kedron. Mr. Frawley, Manager of Coorparoo and of Strathpine, is the representative of Strathpine. Mr. Harding represents Ipswich. He acts as judge at Kedron and other courses, and is thus subject, under the racing rules, to the jurisdiction of the stewards, from whose decisions he sits to hear appeals.

Goodna is represented nominally by Mr. Russell, Assistant Secretary of Kedron. Russell, however, acts as secretary to the Board and takes no part in its deliberations. Thus Goodna is in fact entirely without representation.

Of the five, three—Lawrence, Russell, and Harding—are paid officials of Kedron; Burke is its Chairman, and Frawley, the remaining member, is manager, under Burke, of Coorparoo.

A Board so constituted must necessarily find difficulty, in cases where interests conflict, in giving fair and impartial consideration to the claims of concerns other than Kedron.

It must be equally difficult for a Board composed so largely of paid officials of Kedron—officials too with no tenure, but holding precarious office at a daily rate of pay—to deal out impartial justice to licensees or others appealing, in cases where the decision appealed from appears adverse to the financial interests of Kedron.

Several witnesses, in fact, asserted that the Board does not properly uphold the authority of the stewards and that, even in cases where the stewards' decision is nominally confirmed, the punishment inflicted is frequently remitted or reduced, not on the merits of the case, but with the object of clearing the way, so that the offending owner, trainer, or jockey may resume his activities as a competitor, and consequently a revenue producer, as speedily as possible.

However this may be, it is a fact that apparently just decisions of the stewards are frequently over-ruled, and that punishments inflicted by them or by the Board itself are frequently not enforced.

This distinctly encourages malpractice, and has been one main factor in alienating the confidence of the public. The Commission considers that this unsatisfactory state of affairs is not capable of being remedied from within, so long as the present close connection between the proprietaries of the associated concerns continues to exist.

The Commission therefore considers it necessary, in the interests of unregistered racing itself, and in order to restore, as far as possible, some meed of confidence in the fair and proper conduct of such racing, that the Legislature should set up some central control, capable of exercising within the jurisdiction to be conferred upon it an impartial and independent authority.

A recommendation as to the constitution and functions of such suggested central control appears in Part VI. of this Report.

With the exception of the Ipswich Amateur Turf Club, all the active unregistered racing bodies with which the Commission is concerned are, in its opinion, proprietary.