Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard Thursday, April 27, 1905. TOO MUCH RACING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 790, 27 April 1905, Page 6

Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard Thursday, April 27, 1905. TOO MUCH RACING.

There seems to be a growing opinion that we are getting rather too much racing and when one considers that there have been at least ten race meetings held in the colony during the Easter holidays there does seem some apparent reason for the charge. There is each a thing as getting too much of a good thing and there are not a few who consider that this is the case with the sport of Kings. Whether this is so or not in this colony it would undoubtedly appear to be the case in Australia. Some interesting remarks on the subject appear in the “ Sydney Mail,” which in;dealing with the question, says that “ the primary cause of the excessive racing in vogue for some years past was the short-sighted policy of the governing bodies of the turf in New South Wales and Victoria in not only sanctioning but encouraging proprietary racing clubs. It is fair to suppose that when the A. J.C. and V.R.C. authorities sanctioned the introduction of that system they did not foresee the evils that followed in its train. When the first proprietary club had proved beyond a doubt ‘that there was money in it,’ similar institutions rapidly sprang into existence, pony racing, also on a dividendpaying basis, followed suit, and in the course of a few years fixtures had increased from an average of at most one meeting a week to one, and sometimes two, every day in the week. The abnormal extension of racing in the immediate neighbourhood of the capitals of this and the southern State naturally led to developments of betting hitherto unthought of. Betting and tote shops, which catered for all classes, from the investor of the modest threepenny bit to the party that speculate in pounds, became as plentiful as leaves in Vallambrosa, not only in the principal thoroughfares of the cities and suburbs, mentioned, but in almost every street and lane; and men, women and even children were soon initated into a continuous and sordid system of gambling, from which the elements of sport were entirely eliminated. Then the governing bodies began to realise the baneful effects of the system, which they had been mainly instrumental in bringing into existence ; but, though they still retain some authority over the proprietary clubs that confine their business to horseracing, and regulate the number of fixtures, they have lost all control over pony racing. In the meantime vested interests have grown up, with which the turf authorities are disinclined —even if they possessed the power —to interfere, and the only remedy that appears in sight is restrictive legislation that will effectually do away with proprietary racing, and with it will disappear the most objectionable elements that bring the national pastime into disrepute. Racing should be strictly confined to properly • constituted clubs, in which is invested the control of the public reserves granted by the State with the view of encouraging the breeding of the thoroughbred, and similarly speculation should be restricted to the totalisator, which should only be brought into requisition on the racecourse. That system is in vogue in New Zealand, where the government of the turf is conducted on a representative basis, and in which every club has a voice in framing the laws under which the sport is carried out. In that country proprietary racing is unknown, and the totalisator, which provides a clean, honest safety valve for the speculative tendencies inherent in human nature, is the only medium of speculation permitted on the racecourse, while the revenue derived therefrom provides ample stake money for the encouragement of horse breeding. There the control of the national recreation is not left to an irresponsible body, as in Australia, but is regulated and supervised by a responsible Minister of the Crown Until that or a similar system is brought into operation in Australia, it is useless to expect any

improvement on tne existent state of things.. So far as wagering is concerned, it is equally useless to advocate prohibition, for, while mankind is constituted on its present lines, speculation will be a strong factor in everyday life, whether it be on a horse race, or any other contingency from the toss up of a penny to to the gamble on the insurance policy of an overdue ocean liner. It would be far better if, instead of speculation on horse racing being allowed to run riot as at present, it was brought under proper regulations and restrictions. With the rigid supression of betting and tote shops, as well as of the perambulating bookmaker, and the use of the totalisator restricted to the legitimate racecourse on racing fixtures, the volume of betting would be greatly reduced, and the door to betting would be effectually closed against persons under age.”