TOTALISATOR PERMITS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 487, 31 July 1912, Page 7

TOTALISATOR PERMITS.

The chairman of the Canterbury Jockey Club ha 9 addressed a lengthy letter to the Minister for Internal Affairs on the subject of allotting two days' racing to the Rangitikei Racing Club by reducing by one day the number of days' racing allotted to the C.J.C. The chairman contends that the C.J.C. caters for the whole of the Dominion in a special manner, the attendance at its meetings being drawn from a wider circle than elsewhere. He also directs attention to the comparative lack of racing facilities in the South Island compared with the North as only the C.J.C. and Dunedin Jockey Club provide racing of weight-lor-age standard. He quoted the following conservative estimate of the relative number of days on which strictly metropolitan clubs raced Christchurch 12, Auckland 19, Hawke's Bay 11, Palmerston 9, Wellington 9. ANTI-GAMBLING LEAGUES' PROTEST.

An open letter to the Prime Minister (Mr W. F. Massey) signed by Mr Aitken, president, and Mr North secretary, on behalf of the Associated Anti-Gambling Leagues of New Zealand, appears in the Wellington papers. They regret that the Government p-oposes to evade the responsibility by relegating the question of the number of race meetings days to private members, and state that "when the bill for which you have promised a clear run appears, we will take the opportunity of letting you and the general public know our mind conI cerning it." The letter proceeds to argue that alteration is demanded neither by press nor public, but solely by the outcries of interested parties that the number of days is the same proportion as in New South Wales that the tote gives horse owners revenues far in excess of those in Victoria, and that tote investments have reached the alarming figure of £3 per head of population, against £1 in South Australia. The letter also scouts the argument about encouraging the breeding of horses, and suggests that this can be secured by withdrawing permits from cluba which encourage short-distance eventß,