THE SEW ZEALAND RACING CONFERENCE.

Northern Advocate, 21 September 1910, Page 6

THE SEW ZEALAND RACING CONFERENCE.

MEMORANDUM FROM SIR GEORCS CLIFFORD, BART.. PRESIDENT OF THE RACING CONFERENCE

I have forwarded for presentation to the House of Representatives, dotSPtions against the abolition of the totalisator, signed by 501 trainers, whose employees number 1.018, and who have dependents upon them numbe:\'i.g 1.----964, making a total of 3,483.

I have also had a table prepared of the expenditure of Clubs tor *"•'it> pasi season, exclusive of stakes and taxation. This includes all the totn.Hsat.ov clubs, racing and trotting, a:m a cetain number of the non-tot.iMsat:- I .' clubs. The amount paid in actr-..-! v.-uges is £51,485 Us ltd and that of uV\ev expenditure, not including' stale? , !-; ana taxation, is £.109,41S 11s 6d. a grand total of £100.904 3s 5d T.. addition to this, there were '2040 he ses registered uncle. , the Accident [Fund last season, and it is a coiiser vative estimate to put the ens- of training, entries, etc., at £3 per W2ek for each horse, whic 1 ! makes an expenditure of £318.240 per annum I have ascertained that the number of trotting horses registered last Season was about 1000, which, at £3 pur week each, would mean another £l;>s, 000, so that if racing is to be abolished, expenditure would be reduce 1 by £635,144, of which the greater portion goes to the worker, in fact, practically the whole of it, because none of this work, nor, in fact, any of its accessories, such as horse feed, leather, and innumerable other things are independent of labour. When travelling, hotel and other expenses of the visitors to the different race meetings are taken into consideration (1 estimate that at least £50,000 is spent in Christchurch alone in race and show weeks), there cannot be less than £1,000,000 per annum, all of which .would be withdrawn from circulation.

In racing clubs alone there are 10,----391 members of clubs, and the estimated maximum attendance from ea f h club for one day is, when totalled up close upon 240,000 people. Allowing that 40,000 of those are persons who attend more than one meeting, and adding those who attend trotting and not race meetings, it is fair to assume there are more than 200,000 people in New Zealand who are habitues of the racecourse.

I should like those of our enemies who consider that the community of New Zealand is degenerating through addiction to gambling, to consider the actual results from these figures. The total amount invested in the totalisator for last year was £1,868,584, which, divided by the 200,000, leaves an average of £9 10s per annum each, or about 3s 6d per week, and as there are, on an average, over seven races per day, the gambling per head works out at less than a penny per race.

I would draw your attention to the 1 fact that the necessary consequence of the passing of the proposed legislation will be the suppression of nearly all the unlicensed race meetings, and also of a considerable portion of the non-totalisator meetings. This, of itself, will greatly restrict the alleged superabundance of racing days, and Avill, to some extent .interfere with the livelihood of those engaged in the preparation and management of horses. I venture to suggest that, as a tentative measure, the Legislature should rest content at present with these consequential results. Any further action will have too sudden and unjust an effect in dislocating the employment of the large numbers above indieatod. It may safely be left to the New Zealand Racing Conference to deal with the matter of superfluous and ill-regu-lated meetings, but I am confident that except where contingious racing clubs could beneficially be amalgamated, the sport of racing is not overdone in a country where the population is so sparsely scattered as in New Zealand Statistics as to the number of days of racing in the year are deceptive, inasmuch as all the holidays at Easter and Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, and the like, should be counted' as one, catering as they do for separate districts. For instance, there are 10 meetings on November 9th, 17 meetings on Boxing Day, 15 meetings on January Ist, 10 meetings on St. Patrick's Day, and 11 meetings on Easter Monday, a total of 63 meetings on five days. This analysis of dates is a further testimony that no district in New Zealand is over-supplied with this means of recreation, and I submit that this statefew isolated instances where too many ment is absolutely true, except in a clubs have been allowed to compere with each other in a limited area.