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197. Mr. Kilpatrick, the secretary to the Canterbury Freezing Workers' Union, pointed out another detrimental consequence in that protraction of racing over such an extended period has the effect of making the available balance of the wages of seven consecutive weeks susceptible of employment by workers in betting. Mr. Kilpatrick's view obviously was that a very large proportion of this available balance was so used. A reversion to mid-week racing would therefore, in his view, conduce to a reduction in gambling—a result which is as desirable as it is undesirable that racing should interfere unduly with football and •other athletic games and exercises which improve the health and develop stamina and character. That there would be no loss in production if mid-week racing were resumed was the considered opinion of Mr. Kilpatrick because of the extent to which, during workinghours, over such a protracted period, the workers are distracted by thoughts and talk of racing. 198. Another responsible witness, Mr. D. E. Wanklyn, gave evidence to the same effect. He said : "I have heard opinions expressed by people —not necessarily people connected with racing. I think manufacturers and employers generally would welcome it, the reason being that you have the week of racing and it was, until the intervention of the war, regarded as a sort of local holiday week. Now, when you have big special races like the Grand National Hurdles and Steeplechase and the Lincoln spread over three weeks, there is a disturbance among certain sections of the community which employers have told me has produced inefficiency. One employer put it to me that for the Grand National Steeplechase they talk about it for two days beforehand, for two days after it is over, and then talk for another two days about the Hurdles on the following Saturday." 199. On the other hand, the concentration of racing into the normal mid-week periods would involve the dedication of a complete week in August and another complete week in November to racing, and the effect of that upon production could not be other than substantial. The measure of loss is difficult to estimate. It might prove to be less than is generally assumed. To act upon such an assumption would, however, under existing circumstances be unduly hazardous. Whilst, therefore, it is desirable in many ways that racing should be confined to the shortest possible period, nevertheless we feel that, at the moment, those desirable consequences must be sacrificed to the interests of production. 200. A point of time must come, however, when production will cease to be a dominating factor or a factor sufficiently dominating to justify a continuance of the extension of racing over lengthy periods. The difficulty will be to determine at what point the undoubted benefits