SYDNEY ON "CUP DAY."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81890, 19 November 1906, Page 4

SYDNEY ON "CUP DAY."

WHAT LEGISLATION HAS ACCOMPLISHED. The Sydney "Daily Telegraph'' is impres-cd witj the change which re ctiit .(gislatiun has effected in iegard noi only to betting on the Melbourne Cup, but in the public interest in the 'event/' It says:— "On previous Cup days busine-s u-ed to be partially para'ysed. Every establishment had its tute or iu -weep, and the betting shops did a roaring tiade right up to tne liout when the starter's flag Mi. Everybody di-cu-sed the chances of the hoises, and people who never went to the races or made bets from year send to year's end were accustomed to have -omeihing running for theni in the Cup. As the fateful hour approach e 1 crowds gathered round the news paper offices of a size only seen there an general election days, al. greedy for the first news of the result. But yesterday theie was a marked change in all this. There was little to in dicate that a Melbourne Cup was be mg run. The closed betting -hops were as silent as the tents of Sennacherib on the morning after The might of the Gentile unsmote by the sword Had melted like -now in the glance f the Lord, and in the streets, where the book maker- were wont to call the odds *o crowds of eager punters, blocking the highway, the ordinary tide of traffic flowed peacefully past without interruption. Round the newspaper ■ oflics> merely the pale ghost of the old Cup crowd appealed to remind people ibat the light of other days had faded. In all this was seen the effect of he recent anti gambling legislation, which h?Js made it practica'ly impos--iblc to back a horse without going to the racecrur>e. As far as the city was concerned, the Cup gamble was w ped cleanly out. People who want ed to back their (pinions in the way they were accustomed 10 found the meai-p of doing so no lon«er avai - able. The Cup, therefore," 10-t the greater part of interest for them, and h ordinary business life of the city gained in proportion. There wa s never a year, perhap-, in fie modem hi-tory of this State when people had m ire money 10 | pend on the Cup gamble, yet if the betting figureau'd be obtained they would in all pi inability show that it was a very long time since so little found its way into the bookmakers' bags. By con fining betting to the racecourse the law has already noticeably reducedit> volume, a pr;x ical result which ex periencc pioved under the old Act was impos-ible. It may be that an abatement in ih? passion for turf gambling paved the way for the new legislation that has had the effect of so greatly restricting it. At all event*, public! opinion is obviously reconciled to the abolition of betting shop-, and to that extent the law iihercfore thoroughly t perative. In a 1 'he States, including Victoria, the tendency is distinctly in tins same' direction. Probably more people go 10 the suburban race meetings now than when they could back hor-es in town, but this would hardly apply to inter State vi-itors 10 a race Ike the Melbourne Cup. The ultimate effect, therefore, will probably b:> to cau-c public intere-t in this event to <J,minish year by year, until the Cup -ink'- to the levl of a nvre hica event, creating no particular excite ment cutside the city in which it occurs, and there only .amongst the cla'-s of people who get their pleasure cut of racing on the course itself.