Sydney's imposing skyline: a panoramic view of the city
from Darling Harbour, the centre of the city's deep sea
shipping.- Otago Witness, 1.1.1913. Copies of picture
available from ODT front office, Lower Stuart St, or
www.otagoimages.co.nz
There is no need to search the newspapers at this time of
the year for evidence that horse-racing is a most popular
pastime in New Zealand. The proof stares one in the face, in
fact, in the reports of the numerous race meetings held in
various parts of the dominion during the past ten days, the
holiday season offering, of course, exceptional opportunities
for the holding of such gatherings.
It is always interesting and informative to keep under
observation the spending proclivities of the community in
relation to this particular sport, and the evidence of the
last few days on this point will well repay examination.
Some people may even be disposed, in fact, to consider it a
little startling. The figures furnished show there were at
least a score of meetings at which the totalisator
investments ranged from 7000 upwards, this trifling minimum
being reached, it is hardly necessary to observe, in but a
very small proportion of country meetings. If we take,
however, the more important fixtures, those at Auckland,
Palmerston North, Hastings, Christchurch and Dunedin, we find
the amount of money passed through the legalised betting
machine reached the impressive total of 402,215.
While it is not suggested that these figures are abnormal,
the fact is worthy of notice that in each instance an
increase is recorded in the investments as compared with the
corresponding fixtures of last year, the aggregate increase
in respect to the five centres referred to amounting to
nearly 70,000.
If the inquirer be tempted to look a little further he will
find that the aggregate amount of money invested in legal
form at a round score of Christmas and New Year race
meetings, large and small, for which the totalisator figures
are supplied, reached approximately the imposing total of
586,000, and that it represented an increase in round figures
of 100,000 on the investments recorded for the same fixtures
twelve months ago. In the sum of its proportions it casts no
reflection, it will be admitted, on the general prosperity of
the country.
The verdict of the figures may be considered to indicate very
plainly indeed that the people of New Zealand have as a whole
a great deal of money available for purposes of enjoyment and
speculation. That so many of them should seem to make no
better use of their surplus than to invest it on the tote is
an altogether less gratifying circumstance. - ODT, 4.1.1913.
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