Wellington T.C. membership falls

Press, 20 August 1984, Page 33

Wellington T.C. membership falls

PA Wellington Membership of the Wellington Trotting Club has fallen over the last year. Only about 40 of more than 780 members were at Wednesday night’s annual meeting. Membership was down about 60 from the previous year, the club’s president, Mr Terry Killalea, said. It was revealed the club, which had earlier reported operating at a loss of 130,793 for the previous season (including $41,225 for depreciation) is looking at partly glassing in the public stand. Mr Killalea also spoke of the new promotion work being adopted by the New Zealand Trotting Conference. He criticised the conference which has held its annual meetings at various centres throughout New Zealand in recent years, often at venues more associated to tourist resorts. “To my dismay they are

held all over the place. Generally people look forward to it as a bit of a holiday — but it is not,” he said. The club’s vice-president, Mr Merv Cunningham, and he pointed out that racenight expenses had risen by nearly $20,000 in two years. “Despite the wage and price freeze, costs continue to escalate,” he said. Mr Cunningham also said it cost $l2O to operate and man one jetbet terminal. “This is 33 per cent higher than it used to be. We would like to cut down the number of windows that open and you can help by betting early,” he said. Slip-only betting windows remain a cause for complaint because some people are still using those windows to place multiple bets verbally, he said. Mr Killalea replied: “This is a problem not peculiar to our club. We will always have this but we are trying to minimise it”