ft All To The Good."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19271, 7 January 1931, Page 6

ft All To The Good."

To the Editor. « Dea T sir » — Ma y I congratulate the Star" on the leading article published /ast evening dealing with racing? As you say, three hundred days of racing a year is a desperate economic waste, and the sooner a big lump of it is taxed out of existence the better. Meanness is of no help to anyone, but thrift is, and New Zealanders and Australians will always be hanging round the doors of the Bankruptcy Court if they do not practise a certain amount of it. The racing game carried to extremes is not a sport but a delusion, and a particularly hollow one at that; it encourages men to spend recklessly money that should be kept for food, rent and clothing; and it lures fools on to thinking that they can make winnings easily. Despite depression, we are going to have four days’ racing in and around Christchurch during February, four days at Easter, six days during August, seven in November, and others at odd times to keep the game going and the breed of horses pure. It is those six days in August and the seven in November that I especially object to. Who on earth is responsible for such a * burst ” ? Who on earth wants it ? I play cricket and football, and I like sport, and I enjoy one day’s racing now and again, but this everlasting totalisator mania that New Zealand and Australia suffer from shrieks to heaven.—l am, etc., GIVE IT THE AXE.