RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30447, 22 May 1964, Page 22

RANDOM REMINDER

BACK NUMBERS

It is a relief to all of us that the full figures for the T.A.B. turnover are again being published. The police, no doubt, had a point; but the totalisator numbers offer a clean, neat modus operandi for all those who would, without the T.A.B. figures, find some other means of meeting their particular needs. The Sunday low-tide reading of the Estuary on the aromatic scale would prob-

ably suffice.. Suppression of the detailed figures would not stop the emergence of a Lucky Luciano, or that other expert, Arthur Flegenheimer, who somehow became “Dutch” Schultz, if that was likely in Christchurch. During the fortnight in which the figures were omitted, some of

those most closely interested in the outcome of the T.A.B.’s week-end work cast about for alternative means of carrying on. There were spine ingenious ideas. The least appealing of them was the substitution of sunshine hours for T.A.B. figures. In a Christchurch winter, a man could have won for weeks on end. But there was no escaping the fact that if one system was not

available, another would undoubtedly be found. The numbers on the plate of the first car to pass the Cathedral after 6 a.m. on Sundays, the first hymn number at the 11 a m. service at Windwhistle, the aggregate measurements of the winner of the next Miss New Zealand contest—there is no end

to the possibilities.

If there was a really determined effort to stamp out this sort of thing, it would hardly be possible to publish the English soccer results. Or even the local Rugby matches . . . University beat Teddington by about 50 to about 10.

It’s a pity in a way, however, that things have reverted to normal. Because all the clubs and societies which regularly raise modest sums through the publication of the T.AJt. figures would have had to find other ways, and they would probably have had to advertise ... “The Quail Island Cricket Club’s draw this coming week-end is on a survey of the number of people in Sydenham wfth hammer toes.”