| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 1960
 |
Mr Arthur John Toon, a former totalisator manager for the three Christchurch trotting clubs, died last week. He was aged 69.
Mr Toon retired from his position as totalisator manager in 1957 after 16 years' service. Before that he had been an accountant to a dairy company in Christchurch for 28 years, though during that time he had worked on totalisators from Oamaru to Greymouth and Kaikoura.
He introduced pre-race betting on the NZ Trotting Cup at Addington after he had noticed that the queues of bettors on the Cup meant that many people either failed to see the race or failed to place their bets. His innovation was followed by other Clubs.
Mr Toon had the task of organising doubles betting and off-course betting at Addington and New Brighton.
The two most memorable meetings that Mr Toon controlled as totalisator manager were the Inter-Dominion Trotting Final in 1951 and the Royal meeting in 1954. On the final day of the Inter-Dominion meeting, £214,424 was put through the totalisator and he had a staff of 364 to look after the betting, though he could remember days when he only had a staff of 70 and there was a turnover of £50,000 to £60,000.
Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 7Dec60