GREYHOUND RACING

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4565, 5 November 1937, Page 6

GREYHOUND RACING

POOR MAN'S SPORT. CONTROL IN NEW SOUTH WALES POLITICAL MANOEUVRING. Sydney, October 22. Since the introduction to New South Wales in 1927 of greyhound racing after a mechanical hare, the sport has provided Governments with many problems and some scandals, as well as considerable revenue. The latest problem has to be solved by the Cabinet next week. An American, Judge Swindell, introduced the sport, and made considerable money from the flotation of companies to exploit the patent rights of the apparatus he controlled. Complications led to the Bavin Government in 1928 forbidding betting at the meetings, and the sport languished and died. It revived when the Lang Government came into power in 1930, licenses for betting being granted to certain companies and denied to others. After the Lang Government's defeat, Mr. Stevens appointed a Royal Commission which unearthed many scandals and suspicious circumstances. His Government, in search of new revenue, decided to allow the reintroduction of greyhound racing, but decided that every club holding a license must be a non-proprietary body. Although enpowered to issue two metropolitan licenses, only one was granted —to the New South Wales Trotting Club, which was empowered to hold 52 meetings a year. Cancellation of License. The club for nearly four years has been holding meetings every Saturday night, attracting crowds of from 10,000 to 20,000 with low charges of admission, and with its ability for bets on a small scale, greyhound racing became the "poor man's sport." The Trotting Club, however, unwittingly infringed the conditions of its license. Each Tuesday night, it conducted trials among the lower-class dogs to decide qualifiers for the races on the following Saturday. On a summons issued by an "informer," a Magistrate decided that these "qualifying trials" were meetings, and that, therefore, the club had held in 1937 more than the 52 meetings provided for in its license. The club was fined £SOO and its license for the remainder of the year was cancelled, leaving Sydney the prospect of having no more greyhound racing for the rest of the year.

Keen observers regard the prosecution of the club as a sequel to a dispute which began a year ago between the Trotting Club and the National Coursing Association, which alleged a breach of an agreement between the two bodies. The association formed the Greyhound Racing Control Council, which secured the affiliation of 46 out of the 47 country clubs operating and then forbade owners of dogs racing on the country tracks to race at the Trotting Club's track. The council has for long sought the issue of a second license to itself for racing in the metropolitan area. With the way clear by the Magistrate's decision for a reissue of licenses, the Cabinet now has to consider the applications of three bodies —the Trotting Club, the Control Council, and the Coursing Association. So again greyhound racing enters the political sphere, and there is great wire-pulling going on behind the scenes.

Greyhound racing has expanded enormously since the present system of granting licenses to non-proprietary clubs began in December, 1933. There are now 48 greyhound clubs operating in New South Wales. The aggregate amount paid to the Government in taxation last year, representing admission tax and bookmakers' fees, amounted to £IOI,OOO, of which country clubs contributed £70,000 and the Trotting Club £31,000. This was an increase of £37,000 on the previous year. Prize money amounted to £156,000, of which £119,000 was paid by country clubs and £37,000 by the Trotting Club. It has been calculated that there is an annual turnover from

all sources of £1,500,000 for greyhound racing in this State. There are 18,000 dogs registered as at present racing. Meat consumed by them costs £156,000 and biscuits £57,000.