OUR PROSPERITY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 122, 19 November 1929, Page 10

OUR PROSPERITY

TOTALISATOR INDEX

EDITORIAL COMMENT

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.")

CHHISTCHUKCH, This Day. The "Star" in an editorial on "Races and Business" says: "The totalisator returns on Christehureh's spring carnival were up £50,000. The figures may be variously read. Those who condemn racing may argue that possibly the Government is cramping betting with tfie bookmakers, and diverting it to the totalisatov. Those who know will scoff at this explanation. We are in no position to know bookmakers' turnovers, but no one possessed qf any faculty for observation would dispute that they are as numerous and as busy as ever this spring. "There have-been some disconsolate tales told by commercial travellers of dull times and small business this spring. They have been somewhat discounted by the increased amounts of legitimate betting turnovers in both islands. These are regarded as a fairly accurate index of the spending power cf the Dominion. They travel in advance of the- actual bookings of our emissaries of importing houses, for they are the primary producers' estimate of how our staple exports are going to fare In overseas markets. If these sell satisfactorily there will be a trade balance on the right side and the town trading community can reckon on reasonable buying by country customers. Fortunately, the New Zealand flock owner discounted in advance the world's drop in wool values. Now ho sees the bedrock values he was preparing to meet improved by perhaps 2d per lb for coarse wools and ljd per lb for fine wools. As to' his lambs for killing, there came timely advice that in Hawkes Bay the market has opened on a basis of B*d per lb, which means probably another farthing for prime Canterbury.

"The dairy farmer is also counting on sustained prices. The forward sales of a very large percentage of the South Island's November-January cheese output have been made at from B£d to 83d per lb, which is equivalent to Is 9d to Is lOd per lb for butter-fat. These prices arc not extravagant, and the fact that the producers are buoyant i. feeling on what seem to be stabilised figures should tend to create allround confidence."