THE PRESS AND RACING.

Otaki Mail, 29 June 1923, Page 3

THE PRESS AND RACING.

v 5 There is certainly need for revised . legislation in legard to the gaming laws as applied to racing and the newspapers. The law which prevents a news- ■ paper fqr -publishing dividends is the most ridiculously futile piece of legislation ever enacted in this country. It plays right into the hands of the bookmakers—who flourish to-day, probably more than at any previous period in the history of the Dominion—because those who bet with the bookmakers are in a great many instances unable to ascertain the right dividend and are aften "fleeced" as the result thereof. Then again, the law which prevents tipping is absurd, because it has failed in the object it apparently set out to accomplish. If it is wrong to publish dividends in a newspaper, then it is eciuallv wrong to publish them

iucu it, is equuiij »iu"a v " r"" " on a racecourse. If it is wrong to bet, then it is 'equally wrong to "invest" on the totalisator. A movement was started in New Zealand some years ago to lessen the rights of the Press in the country, and the legislation in regard to racing news was one of the first steps taken. An attempt is now being made 3 in other directions to further restrict i Press rights. No other country in the i British Empire has such ludicrous laws relating to the Press as New Zealand, and there is no more ridiculous legisla- ■ ', tion than that setting out what the • Press shall or shall not publish in regard to the '.'Sport of Kings."