Newspaper Article 1998 – Long-time servant of jockey club dies

Long-time servant of jockey club dies

Obituary

Eric Wishart, a former Hastings chartered accountant and secretary of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club for 35 years from the 1930s to the 1970s, died yesterday. He was 93.

Born on March 22, 1905, Mr Wishart was educated in Thames before leaving to commence work with the Treasury in Wellington in 1921.

He qualified as an accountant in 1933 and was admitted to the New Zealand Chartered Accountants Society in 1936,

In 1935 Mr Wishart left the Treasury to take up a position as county clerk in the Inglewood County Council and moved from there two years later to become secretary of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club.

When Mr Wishart arrived in Hawke’s Bay the area was still suffering the effects of the 1930s depression and recovering from the 1931 earthquake. The finances of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club were at a very low ebb yet, in just a matter of years, he was able to turn it around.

Under the guidance of Mr Wishart, the fortunes of the club boomed during the 1940s and 1950s and, in 1952, the best ever year for on-course turnover was experienced, with £566,352 bet on just four race days.

Mr Wishart set himself up as a public accountant in Hastings and took over the position as secretary of the Hawke’s Bay Hunt.

He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force from 1943 to 1946 and, after the Second World War, took in Trevor Caseley as a partner in his accountancy business.

The two men ran a successful accountancy and share-broking business for many years as well as looking after the affairs of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club.

Mr Caseley took over as secretary of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club upon Mr Wishart’s retirement in 1972.

Mr Wishart was made a life member of the jockey club and the Hawke’s Bay Hunt, from which he retired as secretary in 1975.

Through his close association with racehorse owners and trainers, he was always a popular figure on racecourses both in New Zealand and Australia.

Australian trainer Theo Howe donated $A500 toward the stake for the Eric Wishart Handicap, a race run on the Hastings track for many years.

Mr Wishart was a member of the Hastings County Club since 1937 and president in 1959. He was also secretary of the Hawke’s Bay Grain, Seed and Produce Merchants for several years.

Although he officially retired as a public accountant in the 1980s he continued on in a part-time basis, finally winding up the last of his client’s books at age 82.

An exceptional family man, Mr Wishart took a particular interest in the affairs of his grandchildren. He was also a keen duck shooter and owned a gun dog from an early age.

Mr Wishart was still driving his car at the beginning of this year before ill health finally forced him to sell up his house and quarter-acre section in Hastings and move in to the Mary Doyle Rest Home in Havelock North.