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HEARING ON THE MILLER BILL Testimony Introduced Showing the Value of Racing in Improving the Breed of Horses Ottawa Out January 20 At the continuation of the hearing before the special committee of Parlia ¬ ment on the antibetting bill introduced by II 11 Miller a petition signed by a large number of farm ¬ ers in Essex County was presented objecting to any legislation that would detrimentally affect horse rac ¬ ing ingDr Dr Quiiin of Brampton corroborated the testimony of Dr Uutherford veterinarygeneral of Canada IK has been dealing in horses for many years and has imported a dozen thoroughbred sires He pointed out that Peel County had become famous for its horses one having been recently shipped to the Princess of Wales During the past twentylive or thirty years millions of dollars had been received by the farmers of Peel from the sale of horses He corroborated Dr Rutherfords statement that the breed of horses could only be improved by rais ¬ ing and training the thoroughbred and the thorough ¬ bred could only be proved by the test of racing He dill not believe the people would attend racing if betting illegalReplying were declared illegal Replying to Mr Raney Dr Quiiin said that the people who now went to race tracks for the purpose of making books would not patronize race tracks if betting were made illegal illegalMajor Major Ilcndrie son of the late owner of the fa ¬ mous Valley Farm Stable was called and gave his opinion on the importance of the breeding of thor ¬ oughbreds oughbredsWhat What would be the effect If wagering on a race track is prohibited asked Mr Moss MossIt It would take but a year or two before the thor ¬ oughbred interests throughout the country would be eliminated To answer that question more fully 1 might perhaps illustrate In the early days of the Ontario Jockey Club the Queens Plate was 50 guineas given by the late Queen Victoria From this it has gone up to 5000 Well it naturally follows that if that is eliminated if the clubs are not able to give this money or advance with the times the thoroughbred interests must stop The people who are in for breeding are surely not going to keep on when they see nothing but disaster and no demand for stock ahead of them Questioned by Mr Raney as to thu value of shares in the Ontario Jockey Club witness said that the par value was one hundred dollars per share but he did not know whether he could buy a share for three thousand dollars In respect to his interests in the Hamilton Jockey Club his investment had been made fifteen years ago and he had jwt yet seen any return for his money Colonel moneyColonel Lessard of the Militia Department de ¬ scribed the importance of the Infusion of thorough ¬ bred blood in hunters saddle and jnilitary horses He agreed that if betting were eliminated the at ¬ tendance would fall off thus reducing gate receipts He explained that in France the government gave premiums at horse races for good horses and he said that if gate receipts fell off as they would undoubt ¬ edly do if this bill passed into law the Canadian government would have to give premiums at horse races or the breeding of thoroughbreds would be seriously interfered with withA A K Dyment owner of the Dyment Stable said he had imported a son of the famous Flying Fox which was the highestpriced horse ever sold He contended that there was no horse in the world like the thoroughbred the advantages of which wero many Breeders could not afford to pay the big prices which they did if they were not assured of good purses for the stakes they ran for Without wagers at race tracks there would be a diminished attendance at race courses and the revenue of the jockey clubs would diminish accordingly Owners of race horses could not afford to pay the prics they now did for the best blood If the famous race horse Flving Fox he said had never won a race instead of 1SM00 being paid for him lie would not have fetched 7000 7000It It is the ability of Jiorscs to win races which gives them tluslr value he went on No greater good could be done to this country than by interest ¬ ing the public in the movement in favor of thorough ¬ bred horses and this could not be done without the continuance of horse racing racingI I have been going to the Woodbine said Mr Dyment ever since I was a boy at school and I have never seen anything that you would not see at a fall exhibition in fact you would see worse there than at the Woodbine WoodbineIn In view of the feeling of antagonism which had been stirred up in certain quarters Mr Dyment said that while he did not think a fifteendays meeting was too long in a city like Toronto still he was prepared to agree to a twelve or tendays meeting in the spring and fall It should be however a tendays meeting at least leastW W E Raney on behalf of the promoters of the bill demanded the production of the books of the Ontario tJockey Club and they will probably he submitted lie claimed that the club had assets to the value of 7OOOO but it came out in this connection that only 17000 per year went to the stockholders in the way of dividends In connection with the production of the hooks of the Ontario Jockey Club Mr McCarthy entered a protest against their being open to an inquisitorial investigation y overybody He announced his willingness to produce them but claimed that except while the committee was sitting they had no right to retain them
