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I 1 ! I j j PAY TAX OR NO RACING Ontario Government So Notifies Ontario Jockey Club or Will Forbid Autumn Meeting. TORONTO. Out.. August 0. The Ontario Jockey Club has been notified by the Ontario Government that unless it pays over the 1S.000 tax on the amounts wagered at the spring meeting at the Woodbine, the government will not allow the autumn meeting to be held. The statute gives it authority to forbid meetings in the event of the tax not being paid. During the spring meeting in May the Jockey Club tried to restrain the provincial treasurer from collecting the 5 per cent tax on wagers and secured a temporary injunction from Justice Middleton. The government then put through legislation that stopped further progress with the suit and applied to the court for an order for the payment out of 1S,000 that Mr. Justce Middleton had ordered paid in. The Jockey Club objected to the payment out and. Mr. Justice Riddell suggested that the matter bo decided in the appellate division. When the case came up the government, through N. W. Rowells, K. C, staed that it was not making any application. That left the matter in a state of suspense, with the next move apparently up to the Jockey Club. It is understood that the club is willing to bind itself to pay the tax on wagers at the autumn meeting, but the government is obdurate. The 521S.000 now in court must be paid over, as a result of the club waiving all objections, or the money must be found somewhere else. The government is not particular where the money comes from if the Jockey Club is anxious to test the law it can do so by leaving the money in court and finding an equal sum elsewhere for payment to the government. The government hints that if the race track owners persist in fighting the tax on wagers the government will proclaim the law passed by the legislature that calls for the use of stamps on every wager. This is a cumbersome process and it is possible that the betting public might find it so much bother that the bottom would fall out of the mutuel business at the tracks.
