THE TIN HARE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19156, 12 November 1927, Page 12

THE TIN HARE.

■ RESTRICTIONS IN SYDNEY. MONEY SPENT IN GAMBLING*

(noli : pea. owir combspokdmit.) SYDNEY, November 3, Under the regime which lias ousted the Lang Government in. Now South Wales, those associated with the .tin hare sport do not know quite where they stand at the moment. They are very much like the man who finds him-:, self on the top of a volcano which,, while it is quiescent, may become active at any moment. The one thing which must be satisfactory to them is the knowledge that, under the new Government, they are to have no fresh competitors, and that the hundred applicants or more for additional licenses throughout the State are to be sadly •disappointed. The sport is not likely to be arbitrarily abolished, because of the huge sum of money which is invested in it, but that it is likely to undergo some far-reaching changes is almost certain. For one thing, it is going to be made to produce revenue for a Government which, according to all accounts, has been left in a very impecunious position by its predecessors. The tin hare boom in the Old Country has meant a rich harvest for the British Treasury in the form of amusement and betting taxes, and the feeling of the Composite Ministry in New South Wales is that the sport in that State ought also to be compelled to bring a little grist to the mill. It says much for the Minister now in control of the sport, Mr Bruntnell, who is strongly opposed to it on ethical grounds, and who was in the Salvation Army in his more youthful days, that he has not obtruded his personal views on the Government, and has not tried to sway it one way or the other, in its determination of future policy. The feeling of not a few in the community is that sport generally might well be restricted in New South Wales. In the course of, a year, there are about GOO race meetings. Only a few weeks back, 80,000 people cast everything else aside to attend a meeting at Kandwick. It is estimated that in New South Wales from £4,000,000 to £6,000,000 a year is invested in gambling transactions, which means that as much money as is spent on thewhole of the State's public education and charities a year is transferred from one set of persons to another on mere chance.