TROTTING MEETINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23882, 9 August 1939, Page 8

TROTTING MEETINGS

It is not an unfamiliar complaint which was expressed at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Trotting Conference by Mr H. F. Nicoll, the president, that insufficient days are allotted to trotting clubs on which to conduct meetings. There is no question of the popularity of trotting with a public that is perhaps appreciative of the fact that in a trotting race it gets a longer run for its money. The sport has grown considerably in popular esteem, and it may be recognised that, compared with the older, classic form of horse-racing it is not liberally treated under State control of the issue of permits for meetings. Yet many people may consider, and not only those belonging to narrow-minded circles, in which Mr Nicoll perceives the only opponents of an extension of the privileges granted to the trotting authorities, that the present allocation of eighty days a year is generous enough. This allocation represents appreciably more than a day's trotting a week to owners and enthusiasts, and, while distance may not lend enchantment to the better's view of the "trots," it is no bar to his engaging, wherever the meeting may be held, in that uncertain form of " investment" which provides at least a part of the public interest in horse-racing. Those who wish to bet on the races, whether gallops or trotting events, are provided with ample opportunity of doing so, though not entirely or necessarily through the legitimate channels. Nor do the attendances at meetings gest that the extent to which trotting is restricted prevents the majority of followers of the sport from enjoying a reasonable indulgence in it. Indeed, in attributing the increased totalisator returns partly to the development of trotting, Mr Nicoll himself provides material for the argument that the opportunities of the New Zealand people for betting are sufficient at the present time to meet the capacity of their purses, if not their appetite for the sport. Under the costly dispensation of the 40-hour week New Zealand commerce and industry are already handicapped in their activities. An extension of the days on which, for any reason connected with recreation, the public is lured from its work to more exciting—and considerably less productive—pursuits, could scarcely be of benefit to the country. And this is the view that the Government may be expected to take of the re-

quest for further facilities for the trotting clubs, notwithstanding that, as Mr Nicoll has observed, members of the Cabinet are themselves well disposed towards this fascinating form of public investment, as indeed they may be towards other forms in which the element of a gamble is involved.