546 
affecting their interests and the welfare 
of the canine community in general. T'rom 
time to time many recommendations of the 
greatest importance have been sent up to 
the committee for consideration, and much 
useful legislation has resulted from their 
suggestions. 
It now remains to give some account of 
the Kennel government. This is vested 
in a body of thirty-five gentlemen, the 
general committee of the Kennel Club, 
annually elected from the whole body of 
members, with sub-committees for special 
departments of work, such as Field Trials, 
Finance, House, Show, Stud Book and 
Challenge Certificates and Shows Regula- 
tion. The general committee meet at 
least twice a month, on the second and 
fourth Wednesdays, sometimes oftener, the 
meetings lasting from eleven o’clock in 
the morning until six or seven o’clock in 
the evening or even later. The Shows Re- 
gulation sub-committee also usually meets 
not less frequently than bi-monthly. The 
amount of work which often has to be 
transacted at these meetings can hardly 
be estimated, even by readers of the reports 
which appear in The Kennel Gazette, as 
much of the business is necessarily of a 
routine character. But besides this general 
business, it frequently happens that appeals 
or complaints have to be investigated, in 
which important interests are involved, 
and which require the very closest attention 
to evidence or to detail on the part of the 
committees. The general work of the 
club is conducted by the secretary, with 
the aid of an assistant secretary and a staff 
of eighteen clerks. Some idea of the magni- 
tude of the business transacted may be 
gathered from the fact that the number 
of letters received and requiring an answer 
in a single day frequently reaches three 
hundred. In addition, daily attention has 
to be given to a large number of callers on 
business connected with the various depart- 
ments, many of whom require personal 
interviews. This is only part of the ordinary 
daily routine of the office. At special 
periods of the year the work is greatly 
increased in anticipation of the field trials, 
THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 
the annual show at the Crystal Palace, 
‘the compilation of the Kennel Club Calendar 
and Stud Book and the monthly issues of 
The Kennel Gazette. A moment’s consider- 
ation of these particulars will certainly 
convince any observer that the responsi- 
bilities of the members of the committee 
are very onerous, and that the Kennel Club 
more than justifies its existence, and de- 
serves the thanks of the canine world for 
the vast amount of time and attention 
which is ungrudgingly and unceasingly be- 
stowed upon its behalf. 
One of the most important functions of 
the Kennel Club is that which gives the 
committee power of jurisdiction. In every 
branch of sport which has the advantage of 
being governed by a properly constituted 
authority, with a code of rules for its guid- 
ance, it has been found necessary to embody 
a rule giving power to deal with cases of 
fraudulent or discreditable conduct. The 
necessity of such a rule is made apparent 
by the records of the various governing 
bodies, and the power to enforce decisions 
must be absolute if sport is to be purged 
cf the scandals and malpractices which un- 
fortunately still exist. 
The perusal of the official. columns of 
The Kennel Gazette will furnish much food 
for thought, and the most casual observer 
of the administration of the law by the 
authority governing dog-showing, must ad- 
mit that a stringent penal rule is absolutely 
indispensable if such practices as have 
been alluded to above are not to be allowed 
to increase and multiply to an extent which 
would in a very short time relegate dog 
snowing and breeding to the position it 
occupied prior to the foundation of the 
Kennel Club. 
The power which a penal rule gives to 
authorities governing the various branches 
of sport is very great—a power which can 
damage the character of an individual, and 
make him or her a person quite unfit to be 
a member of any society whose aim it is 
to maintain the purity of the sport it is 
founded to uphold. To be “ warned off” 
by the authorities governing any form of 
sport involves most unpleasant conse- 
