TROTTING CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 10 July 1924, Page 1

TROTTING CONFERENCE

PROPOSED LEGISLATION

WELLINGTON, July 9.

In his annual address at the Trotting Conference, tlie president .said : AYe have been promised a Gaming Bill for some years past in order to rectify some present anomalies in the law, and to do justice to both trotting and racing. The Premier is introducing a Bill this session which will contain some of the provisions for which we have been contending, and whits* "ill further assist- ns to keep the sport clean and free from evils. A lot of nonsense lias been talked from time to time against these sports, and nonsense that it would not be worth while refuting, if it were not that some might accept as true wild assertions made hy people whose position should make thorn more careful of tlieir facts and figures. 1 noticed recently that one of nut' opponents stated there were more races in New Zealand than in Great Britain, a statement so ridiculous that one would have imagined that even the most rabid crank would have hesitated before circulating it. the truth being of course, that there are many thousands more races in Great Britain than in New Zealand. The same writer, in order to strengthen his ease, which was that there was more relative betting in New Zealand than in Great Britain, after being bowled out in his statement, wrote that it- estimated £l-10,000,000 is staked on the turf every year in Britain. and a day or two later I road in the London “Daily Telegraph” a speech made by the president of the National Sunday School Union in London. in which lie said that- £3o(),000.00 changed hands every year in Britain in gambling. One sees bow littTo reliance can be placed on any figures put- forward front certain ,q tilt i ters. The Select Committee set up by tlie House of Commons specially stated in tlieir report- that betting was an established institution, and that itf; prohibition was impracticable.