The Hastings Standard. MONDAY, NOV. 15, 1909 TAXING THE TURF.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4311, 15 November 1909, Page 4

The Hastings Standard. MONDAY, NOV. 15, 1909 TAXING THE TURF.

In many parts of the Dominion people interested in horse racing are at a loss to understand what is actually meant by the announcement of the proposal to impose a tax of 2/2 per cent on the total receipts of racing clubs. By some it is accepted as meaning the percentage will be fixed on all receipts such as gate money, nomination and entrance fees ( sale of privileges, as well as totalisa. tor receipts, and this interpretation has been the cause of a good deal of surprise and alarm being felt. In Dunedin a reporter of " i he Star " interviewed representative racing men there on this feature of the praposal and sumarising the opinions he publishes them fhus : —"The main question is to what the proposal neans. The Minister speaks of taxing " the total receipts." Surely he cannot intend to nip a percentage of the nomination and acceptance fees, the gate money, and the income from privileges. Probably what he means is to take per

cent from the bookmakers' fees as well as from the totalisator. Obviously the pronosition is to look further than the totalisator, because the increase of the totalisator tax to 2\ per cent would raise the return from £25,0©0 to £41,000 odd, and what the Minister speaks of is a gain of £38,000. If the proposal is simply to levy now on the bookmakers' license fees it cannot be contended that the principle would be unfair, since at present those fees are clean money to the clubs, and if a club chose to do all its betting through the bookmakers it would escape the tax altogether. But whilst in principle fair enough, it must be borne in mind that this £38,000 is a class tax to a large extent. The clubs that find the money will of course have to take it out of stakes apd improvements, and as much as comes from a saving in stakes is a direct tax on horse-own ers. Another point, and perhaps of more consequence, is that some exception should be made in the case of clubs that have in good faith undertaken heavy liabilities in the public interest. The Forbury Trotting Club may be cited as an example. A liability of about £IO,OOO has been incurred on the strength of existing arrangements, and it would be unfair to put a crippling handicap upon such an enterprise. As to the proposal to reduce the number of race meetings, the racing authorities agree that the proprietary pony and galloway clubs ought to be at once abolished, and many racing men think that the registered hack meetings that have te> work without the totalisator might be reduced in number. There were about 120 of these hack meetings last season —twentyfour in Otago."