RACING BAROMETER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22612, 28 December 1936, Page 8

RACING BAROMETER

Sport and economics may have little in common although the trend of totalisator betting in New Zealand follows with remarkable fidelity the movement of general trade. It is not surprising, therefore, after a record festive season, to lind the easier money conditions taking effect at the race meetings. The increase in totalisator receipts has been marked at most Dominion meetings for some months and is confirmed in striking fashion by the Boxing Day returns published this morning. Those.at Ellerslie are the best since 1929. Their correspondence with general economic conditions can be judged from the fact that totalisator receipts dropped from 1929 to the trough in 1932, recovering slowly in succeeding years until the sharp rise on Saturday. Not everyone will approve the increase in betting on one day from £76,928 to £102,798, or in attendance from 31,000 to 38,000, but none will deny that these figures are indicators of prosperity. The fact is that generous Christmas shopping has been followed by free holiday spending and, for tens of thousands of New Zealanders, racing is an important adjunct to holidays. So far as better times are concerned, New Zealand is merely sharing in world recovery. Perhaps the biggest operating factor so far as the Dominion is concerned has been the progressive improvement in her chief market in Britain, where busier industries, more employment and higher wages and dividends have combined to cap a good year with a record Christmas. The samo mass buying has marked the season in other countries and it seems clear that psychological factors, particularly a sense of release from long depression and denial, have reinforced good trade in loosening purse strings to a remarkable degree.