THE TIN HARE VOGUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19792, 12 November 1927, Page 16

THE TIN HARE VOGUE.

RESTRICTIONS IN SYDNEY.

PROBABLE DRASTIC CHANGES.

[from our own correspondent. ] SYDNEY. Nov. 3. Under the regime which has ousted the Lang Government in New South Wales, those associated with the tin hare sport do not know quite where they stand at the moment. They are very much, like the man who finds himself on the top of a volcano which, while it is quiescent, may become active at any moment. The one thing which must be satisfactory to them is-' the knowledge that, under the new Government, they are to have no fresh competitors, and that the hundred applicants or more for additional licences throughout the State are to be sadly disappointed.

The sport ns not likely to be arbitrarily abolished, because of the huge sum of money which is invested in it, but that it is likely to undergo some far-reaching changes i 3 almost certain For one thing, it is going to.be made to produce revenue for a Government which according to all accounts, has been left in a very impecunious position by its predecessors. The tin hare boom in the Old Country has meant a rich harvest for the British Treasury, in the form of Amusement and betting taxes, and the feeling of the Composite Ministry in New South Wales is that the sport in that State ought also to be compelled to bring a little grist to the mill. It says much for the 'Minister now m control' of the sport, Mr. Bruntnell, who is strongly opposed to it on ethical grounds, and who was in the Salvation Army in his more youthful days, that he has not obtruded his personal views on the Government, and has not tried to it one way or the other <n its determination of future policy. The feeling of v not a few in the community is that sport generally might well be restricted in New South Wales.

In the course of a year there are about 600 rare meetings Only a few weeks hqck, 80.000 people oast everything else aside to attened a meeting at Randwick It is estimated that in New South Wales from £4,000.000 to £6,000.000 a year is invested in gambling transactions, which means that as much money as is spent on the whole of the State's public education and charities a year is transferred from one set of persons to another ov mere -chance.