THE GAMING BILL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 14 July 1927, Page 3

THE GAMING BILL.

PRESIDENT OF TROTTING CONFERENCE.

“If the Gaming Bill, now before the House, is passed, it will considerably increase the revenue of the Telegraph Department, and the Minister of Finance will then be able, with the extra revenue so received, to refund a portion of the totalisator duty which would renew the life of the country clubs, and enable them to carry on,” stated the piesident of the New Zealand Trotting Conference yesterday. “The metropolitan clubs, though many of them are heavily burdened with debts, due to money spent oil the improvements to their courses for the convenience of the public, are paying their way ; it is the country clubs having one or two days’ racing each year, whose meetings are more of an annual picnic, that are feeling the pinch. The rebate would be an immense assistance to them, and would ease the present constant agitation for remissions in taxation. So far as our sport is concerned, with the Bill passed, and the refund of totalisator duty increased to 21 per cent on the first £20.000, we should cry content until we can see our way to obtain the extra days which trotting so urgently requires. “This Bill is a roadsted to which all clubs are hopefully gazing, and if the Minister of Finance can arrange to increase the refund of totalisator duty to 21 per cent, with a maximum of £SOO per annum, it will prove the salvation of many sorely pressed clubs. The present struggle to keep afloat is a trying one, and we have seen during the past year some racing clubs failing. and in their extremtiy turning over to trotting, and some trotting clubs failing and seeking to turn oyer to racing. This is a state of affairs that neither the Racing nor the Trotting Conference desires to obtain, and will prove demoralising to both sports if allowed to continue. Although trotting throughout the Dominion continues to grow in favour, and we are urgently in need of several extra nermits. yet we do not wish to gain these at the expense of our sister sport, in whose welfare we are hound up in the same manner as they are with ns. The old proverb “united we stand, divided we fall,” is as true to-day as it has ever been, and I am happy to say that- the relationship existing between 1 lie two conferences is mutually satisfactorv and cordial.”