THE IMMORAL TOTALISATOR. Why not Kill it?

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 213, 30 July 1904, Page 6

THE IMMORAL TOTALISATOR. Why not Kill it?

PERHAPS the totahsator is going to be abolished this session — perhaps not. Seeing that the birth-rate has steadily declined since it set its cloven hoof down in New Zealand, and that one cannot afford babies and totalisator tickets too, it is to be hoped that the Government will follow the lead of other colonial Governments, and burn the whole box of tricks The Masterton Employers' Association the other day passed the following resolution "That, m the opinion of this Association, the abolition of the totalisator would be more conducive to the interest of employees than the Shops and Offices Bill " ■^ ♦ * In the opinion, too, of a very large number of people, whose father or brother has had two or three "dead certainties, ' and has planked his wages on the "tote," and lost. It is the opinion of the employers, who may have feared that the proximity of the cash-box to the staff of employees might mean temptation to men who wanted to retrieve lost money, and who, in many cases, only swell the banking account of somebody else — and the State revenue. * » * The bookmaker is chivvied off nearly every course in New Zealand, because, forsooth, he wants to take money the totalisator is legitimately allowed to scoop in. And m a country that prides itself on its morals the all-absorbing legalised gambling machine should be chivvied off too. You cannot stop people gambling m private, but you may prevent tie State assisting with both hands to gather m money that might otherwise be expended m paying butchers' and bakers' bills. * * * The totalisator has increased gambling, because it has made it respectable Women and children, knowing the machine is under State control, have no shame in putting their money on. They would blush to be seen handing five shillings to a bookmaker. It is fair and impartial, of course, and the machine can't "welsh," but its very simplicity and impartiality attract persons who would not otherwise be attracted. A bill for the introduction of State lotr teries on the European system, if brought into the New Zealand Parliament, would go out with great celerity, and it would be just as fair, and no more wickedly attractive, than the State gambling machine. * * * We are hedged about with fatherly laws, designed for our moral good, but the State condones one of the greatest immoralities a country can suffer under in the "tote." Its abolition would do a few people some monetary harm, and it would do an incalculable amount of good to thousands. Let it go. There will be fewer small-debt cases in the Magistrates' Courts when the last "tote" bell has tinkled, and the State has taken its last "tote" per centage