RACING AT TAKAPUNA

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1927, Page 7

RACING AT TAKAPUNA

FALLING OFF IN REVENUE

'By Telegraph.'l tSpecial to "The Evening Post.") ' AUCKLAND, This Day. At the annual meeting of the Takapuna Jockey Club, the president (the Hon. E. W. Alison) said the financial results were not as satisfactory as they conk! have desired. They would observe from the report that stake money paid away for the year amounted to £14,025, an average of £3500 per day, the same as was paid away in stakes the .previous year.. The total receipts of the club for the year, however, were £4776 2s 2d less than for the year 1925-26. This substantial fallingoff was due to exceptionally inclement weather on each day of the spring meeting. It would be incumbent upon the incoming committee to exercise prudent economy, and to. limit expenditure as- far as possible. With the decreases in totalisator and other receipts by clubs generally throughout the Dominion it would be necessary to reduce.the total stake money for the 1927-28 season. He knew the committee would be reluctant to even discuss a reduction of stakes, but there was no alternative under existing conditions if

the club was to maintain its financial stability. The taxation paid by the club to the Government last year amounted to £13,564, in addition to which the club paid local rates £492 10s 3d, and land tax £145 4s 4d, amounting in. all to £14,2t)Ms 7d—a sum of £175 in excess of the total stakes paid. The taxation imposed on racing. clubs and the sporting public was not only excessive, but was bo over-loading and so burdensome, tnat its injurious effects'were being seriously felt by clubs as a whole, and the revenue of the State was also being detrimentally affected.