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meeting covered by the licence. The effect of this is illustrated by the fact that for the 1909-10 racing year racing took place on 304 days, of -which 62 days were devoted to trotting. The Gaming Amendment Act, 1910, introduced a new principle into the grant of licences and a new restriction. It specified a limit to the aggregate number of days •on which the totalizator might be used. The effect of this was to reduce the total number of days from 304 to 250, racing being reduced by 43 days (that is, from 242 to 199), and trotting being reduced by 11 days (that is, from 62 to 51 days). 238. By the Gaming Amendment Act, 1914, the number of days in respect of which a totalizator licence could be granted was increased by an aggregate of 31, bringing the total number of days upon which the use of the totalizator could be licensed to 281. These days were distributed as to 214 to racing clubs, and as to 8 to hunt clubs, and as to 59 to trotting clubs. The Gaming Amendment Act, 1924, increased the number of days by 12 in respect of racing clubs and by 19 in respect of trotting clubs. The total number of days in respect of which a licence could be granted was therefore brought to 320. Two hundred and forty are allotted to the racing and hunt clubs and 80 to trotting clubs. Under section 3 of the Gaming Amendment Act, 1924, two racing clubs, Cheviot and Methven, have changed over to trotting. No statutory alteration either by way of reduction or increase has been made since 1924. We have disregarded in this history the temporary wartime reductions made during World Wars I and 11. SECTION 2.—INFLUENCE OF TOTALIZATOR ON RACING IN NEW ZEALAND 239. In the absence of the totalizator, horse-racing in New Zealand in both its forms would be unrecognizably different from what it is. From no other source would it have been possible for clubs to have derived the revenue which, in the words of Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald in his recent work, " The Book of the Horse," has enabled them " to endow their races so well and to equip their racecourses and buildings in a manner which is the envy of every visitor from Britain who knows the appalling inadequacies of all but a few of our racecourses and racecourse buildings at home." The benefits which have accrued in New Zealand to horse-owners and to racing and racegoers from the use of the totalizator made such a deep impression upon Mr. Fitzgerald that he devoted some little time and space to the presentation of a picture in words of what the racing authorities in England might have accomplished had they enjoyed an income from betting on the scale which the racing authorities in New Zealand have enjoyed. 240. It is beyond question that the income derived from the use of the totalizator has enabled clubs to provide adequate stakes without requiring any material contribution from owners; this is in marked
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