"THE TOTALISATOR."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 249, 18 October 1907, Page 6

"THE TOTALISATOR."

iTo the-Baiter.) Sir, —The anti-gambling party have received no encouragement from a perusal of the annual reports of the various racing clubs in our Dominion, which-occa-sionally appear in fhe Press.' Most of the clubs seem L to-~b»ee tfone pretty-well through the exclusion of the bookmakers from their racecourses, and in some cases have benefited .nearly fifty per cent in their receipts through : 'the medium 'of the totalisator. - A recent report showed a grand'- total ; of- -£73 ; ?57, : increase -oh vious year '. £23,736, r ' Government' tax £1109'7/2'on seven days' racing.' Taken altogether-the reports explain to me-the system which' our Premier alluded to in his remarks-' to "an anti-gambling deputation of eighty -men - and women, ■ who waited on him fn Wellington' on July 30, a report of the meeting appearing in the local Press on.July 31. Sir Joseph said "he was anxious to do all in' his p6w*er to meet the wishes of the deputation," but on the question of the "abolition of the totalisator," he asked the deputation "to recognise the fact that.'it was not possible to get such a proposal through Parliament." He recognised tnerc was a large section of the community who looked upon a race meeting as part and parcel of a "system," which they supported and believed in These people could not be ignored. The Premier also agreed with a member of the deputation that the proposed one per bad - Lf for charity "was * ™ t0 The Premier admitted "flit Wwiiias * was carried, on, at JZIS g curse to the community - E * ' a »k wrous in asldhg us h?l ™° - Pre ™ L er is ■& has any S'J'Jf 0 '- Hp-Sm tasted -fc-cme. to thexom-' X

munity." Lee the Premier appeal to those legislators wno believe in tne .'"system," ajjad ask them to do their duty from a .national standpoint;- and to keep their "sjetem," in the background, and no doubt. Sir Joseph will not find it impossible -co-' abolish the totalisator. There ds nothing to be said against horse radmg. We merely ask that its supporters shall not require our Government to iegalis6~a betting machine as the "Alpha"* and" ■'"Omega" oi the "system's" existence. Some or us have looked into this maiier from a deeper point of view Than thp •'grandstand" and "exhilarating influence" view-, and we see the wrong. Last year, in a letter of mine that you were kind enough to publish, I I alluded to a case of a scholar at one of our public schools being a licensed apprentice or jockey. 1 have heard of two other cases in which two boys were unable to a wail themselves of the educational advantages open to all children in our Domixnon through their parents' action in wi-.£hdrawing them from school in eonnectßoai with horse racing. One case seemed hard on the lad concerned, a> the boy did not wish to leave school, aid asked his teacher to "try and influence ibis father not to withdraw him. The teachiar wrote and impressed on the father the advantages to be obtained by the boy remaining at school and attending regularly, but vdthout avail. The father withlirew the. lad—who might have won a scfaolarimip —to ride horses at exercise for an employer, who, no doubt, is a supporter of the "system" our Premier afludes to, and "whose rights cannot be ignored." This is the sort of thing, Sir, that makes some of us parents angry. Thie totalisator will go eventually. Of this I am positive. Why not now? Let the present generation of children Inure the benefit of its abolition. Amongst otsr children, are some of the future legislators of onrr Dominion. We must not leaave them "to do what it was their father's duty to have done. Mr Seddon . would have looked at the matter through paueaial spectacles, and with his strong love of home-life and regard for the future .>of the children of the Dominion, once convinced, like our Pre- ! mier, of the seriousness of the gambling mania, --rpould have . set about remedying with that determina--tion so chaxacteaSstic of him, and he would have suceseded The proposed anti-gambling legislation -won't mend matters; it only aims,at pruning the evil by curtailing "the days on which the machine can be used The duty of our legislators is to root out • the evil for ever by abolishing the totalisator. ' We shall have less racing, but the .sport will be purer.—l am, etc, ERNEST HOPE PEEL.