DOMINION'S FIRST TOTALISATOR.

Shannon News, 4 December 1923, Page 4

DOMINION'S FIRST TOTALISATOR.

MOVED ' ON A CART,

Outside the horses there is no question that to-day. in the sport of racifag the most important item is the totalisator (says the Auckland Star). Not only with* the public, but with the clubs, is. the result of the working of . the automatic recorder of odds a source ol much concern, because the, future of racing in New Zealand), if nowhere lelse, depends for its very , existence upon the amount passed

I through, the machines at the meeting^. Like everything else the totalisator has been, revolutionised and those who' were, present iw the Dominion over 40 years ago must wonder at the wonderful improvement made in "totes" [when they compare the present day } electjjc machine with the "tote." of } the 'eighties'. The introduction of the totalisator to New Zealand took place way hack in 1880, land was first tried by the Gonterbury Jockey Club. Prior to this all betting had been done, with the bookmakers, and naturally much curiosity was evinced in the. introduction of the "tote," which eventually wa, s - to oust the penciller from the racecourses of the Dominion. On the, .occasion referred to the late Mr G. G. Stead was chairman and treasurer of the Canterbury Jockey Club, and. a model parimutuel was exhibited and submitted to him by a Mr Frams.' Mr Stead decided to give the "tote" ,a trial, and at the end of the first year's' working- a profit of £l3O was shown. The machine was only a small affair, worked by hand, and very often locate* on a cart on the course. The same machine would be carted from meeting T,o meeting, but in those days there was! nothing like the volume of betting that is chronicled now, and the day's turnover in the 'eighties and very much later would' not he the equal of what any fairly well-backed horse would carry now in a. race. .

Gradually the totalisator was miproved upon until to-day we have to* electric machine which records every investment, as the ticket is issued, and no matter how. many tickets axe taken on a horse at the same moment all are recorded- correctly and simultaneously.