THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1881. THE TOTALISATOR CASE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2242, 5 May 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1881. THE TOTALISATOR CASE.

The Totalisator case, in which au information was laid by Mr. Alfred Drake against Messrs Hobbs and Goodwin, has, of lato, been creating a considerable amount of interest. The latter wore charged with gambling on tho Racecourse by means of a machine known as the

“ Totalisator,” and it was the object of tbo gentleman who so virtuously and patriotically moved in the matter, that Messrs, Hobbs and Goodwin should, under tho Vagrant Act of 1866, be committed to durance rile, with hard labour, for a period not exceeding twelve months. The case was first brought into Court on April 25th, and adjourned to May 2nd, notwithstanding an appeal from tho prosecutor’s counsel that, if immediate steps were not taken, “ the obnoxious contrivance would rear its defiant head ” in

the meantime. Mr.Whitefoord, wo may remark cn passant, was singularly callous to the effect of such a rampant proceeding on the part of the obnoxious contrivance, but possibly, had ho caught it in the very act, as Mr. Stringer evidently has, bis views on the subject might have been materially altered. On the 2nd inst. the case came on again, and it was soon apparent that business was meant. The prosecution called first a model policeman, who said ho had seen the Totalisator indeed, but had not the slightest idea how it worked. Then came Mr. Sigismund Franck, the inventor or possessor of another and rival obnoxious instrument, who declared, practically, that Messrs Hobbs and Goodwin’s affair was not worth a dump. After several other equally valuable witnesses had been examined, an elaborate argument was entered into as to whether the racecourse was, or was not, an open and public place, the prosecution of course maintaining that it was, and quoting authorities to show that, by recent decisions, Totalisators and PariMutuels had, in Victoria, been ruled to bo gambling machines. As to the virtuous prosecutor himself, he, with a modesty that does him infinite credit, kept in the background, and, although, no doubt, Mr. Joynt would have been delighted to have mot him and question him in a friendly spirit, yet he was evidently anxious that his exertions for the public welfare should not be obtrusively brought forward. The decision of the Bench in the matter was postponed until yesterday, when Mr. Whitefoord gave judgment. He ruled that the racecourse was indeed an open and public place within the meaning of the Vagrant Act, but that the Totalisator was more of a recording than a gambling machine, and, on the occasion in question, was not used for the purposes of a game of chance. He further hoped that the complainant would appeal, and Mr. Stringer gave notice of his intention of doing so. And there the matter rests for the present. The obstacles met with by Mr. Drake have evidently not damped the ardour which has induced him to sacrifice so much to a great principle. He evidently sees in the Totalisator a public nuisance, and pictures its proprietors going about from racecourse to racecourse, covered with jewellery, and living on the public, in a manner which must disgust the ordinary observer. The morals of the youth of the colony will, Mr. Drake thinks, be corrupted by the sight of gentlemen who, scorning all ordinary descriptions of an honest and laborious life, grow fat on the weakness of the juvenile “ flats ” that swarm in all communities, and who do so much to degrade the noble pastime of racing to a level that prevents many right-minded men having anything whatever to do with it. Mr. Drake, before instituting the prosecution, no doubt drew some such picture as this of a class of individuals who ought to be suppressed by hook or by crook. And rumour has it that a number of equally virtuous gentlemen were of the same opinion, and that Mr. Drake’s efforts were backed up by a confraternity which, we are informed, are banded together from the highest motives, and are called “ the book-making crowd.” This supremely high-soulod body of men are, it would seem, bestirring themselves to cleanse the moral atmosphere in all possible ways. They have commenced by prosecuting the proprietors of what appears to them to bo a most immoral contrivance, but which less deeply-thinking casuists dub an ordinary recording machine. This their first attempt will be carried to greater lengths when the affair reaches a higher Court. Messrs Drake and Co. will probably follow this preliminary canter by lecturing over the colony on the origin of evil, the wickedness of holding that the laws of chance rule the world, and other abstruse subjects. To follow this, they will extend themselves into the promotion of subscriptions for supplying blankets to needy betting men, to the poor Zulus, and other harmless and well-deserving people. Such pious efforts will, to a certainty, be amply appreciated by a public that is ever ready to recognise merit. The philosopher Kant used to say that therewere two things thatpver whelmed him, namely, the starry heavens and right and wrong—right, the sacrifice of self to duty—wrong, the sacrifice of duty to self. We only wish that'Kant were alive at the present moment, and could moor himself for a short space alongside of Mr. Drake and his confraternity. The moral balance of the great system builder would, we feel confident, be overpowered by the spectacle presented. The utter sacrifice of self to duty on the part of the bookmakers would be altogether too much for so impressionable a thinker. It is a thousand pities that the merits of the hookmaking brotherhood have not been discovered before this. They have hitherto lived under a cloud; notwithstanding their countless jewels men look shyly at them. All this will now end, for people will recognise that the confraternity is a great moral engine, and that its members are not only outwardly resplendent, but inwardly filled with light.