RACING TAXATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19528, 10 July 1925, Page 8

RACING TAXATION.

Ik his presidential address at the Racing Conference on Wednesday Sir George Clifford entered an almost passionate protest against the present conditions of racing 'taxation. The burdens laid by Parliament upon the sport which ho represents are, in his opinion, oppressive to the point of persecution. Many people without prejudice on one side or the other may think that the arguments advanced in support of the protest are plausible rather than convincing. We waive consideration of the claim, perhaps a little bold, that the racing clubs are “worthy of all encouragement as beneficial to the physical and moral health of the community.” It might bo wished that Sir George Clifford had enlarged upon the moral aspects of tho situation. The financial issue, however, is the main matter. The prosperity of tho racing clubs is, we are assured, “essential to the financial and other advantages accruing to the dominion from their existence.” It may be a moot point whether the Minister of Finance would manage to get along without revenue derived from racing enterprise. Perhaps he might make a brave struggle. Anyhow Sir George Clifford’s remarks appear to bo wrongly based. The people who attend race meetings, not the racing clubs, pay the bulk of the special taxation. The owners of racehorses contribute their share if they are speculators, as most of them may be, but in all their transactions in this respect they are members of the general public, entitled to public rights and nothing more. It may b© that, as one of our contemporaries suggests, the special taxation amounts to an endowment of the bookmakers. But it is not that of which Sir George Clifford complains. He alleges that tho racing clubs are being persecuted. Tho fact of the matter is, however, that Sir George Clifford’s financial calculations are vitiated by a fallacy which, with his experienced sagacity, ho might fairly be expected to detect. If the racing chibs arc poised between life and death, if their coffers have been depleted, if their tragic predicament cries aloud for redress, it is not to Government or

Parliament that they should appeal for relief. Sir George Clifford’s poignant phrases are misdirected. Each club must depend upon its local supporters. If the support is lacking there is presumptive ground for supposing that the complaint regarding Government taxation is an unsatisfactory pretext. The figures quoted and tabulated by Sir George Clifford indicate not so much the severe pressure of taxation as the huge increase of the racing pursuit. In 1895 the totalisator investments amounted to something under threequarters of a million. In 1921, an exceptional year, the sum was over ten millions, and last year it exceeded seven millions. It is upon these investments and upon the dividends accruing from them that 80 per cent, of the taxation of which Sir George Clifford complains is levied. It is noteworthy also that the taxation has not affected the volume of investments. That is the real test as to whether the taxation is or is not oppressive. The statistics which Sir George Clifford himself quoted negative any suggestion that it is oppressive.