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Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1595, 30 December 1885, Page 2

The totalisator has become such an abominable nuisance at our race meetings (writes " Mercutio" m the Auckland Herald) that those who previous^ attended the course for tha sake of witnessing the racing alone are now seeking: ! other amusements on race days. It is impossible to imagine the source from which the greasy larrikin " pops on" his favorite spring, but it is shrewdly guessed that they are not come by honestly. I'm afraid we are giving our young boys a very injudicious and hurtful love of gambling, for which we will suffer when" times are harder, and they have more difficulty m getting their pounds to invest. Were it not that there is powerful influence behind it, it would doubtless have been stopped ere this, but I hope y«t to see it closed and the readymoney bookmaker turned off the course. The ordinary bookmaker, if properly licensed an<l kept within certain bounds, is quire sufficient to satisfy the general public, and it is certainly less objectionable, both as a tempter of youth and as a ] crowd collector, than the totalisator, which needs speedy legislation to suppress.