The Daily News THURSDAY, JULY 19. POPULARISING RACING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8160, 19 July 1906, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, JULY 19. POPULARISING RACING.

One hundred and fifty-six totalisator licenses were granted during the year 1904-5. These covered 294 days. Kxcluding Sundays, the machine operated on practically every day of the year. Sir George Clifford, at the Racing Conference last week, expressed the desire to see racing established universally in public opinion, not only as a popular and scientific sport, but also as a healthful and innocent recreation for the people, This sounds very laudable, and we would that Sir George's desideratum be brought to a " fait accompli." w»■ » * The New Zealand authorities have objoctel to the foreign lottery tickets that oome to the colony in hundreds. With the exception of the land-ballot gamble we have no State lottery, We do not permit the nimble bookmaker to ply his calling on the largest of our racecourses. We insist that before the ohurohes hold raffles—the mildest form of the evil—the church authorities shall get permission from the Colonial Secietary. In fact, we purify the Augean Stable with a half-inoh Byringe, and foul it with a two-feet hose—the " tote," • • • *

The Government does its best to prevent Tatter-sail's sweeps getting a hold on the colony—without the slightest success. It is clear that Kaniu.'i"" * s re ß ar d o & M an evil by the powers that !""; the powers, as a cure for the disease, 2""' stitute a greater one. The curse of I the tote is that it is " respectable." It is fair and does not misappropriate the money placed upon it. A big proportion of all communities patronise it—men, women, and children. Women don't dive into the bowels of the earth to find a " bookie," because it is not nice. They rush and scurry for the tote, because the Government has sanctioned the tote. -

»»» * ' ' If the unpaid bills, and the " borrowed " petty cash, and the pledged household effects, representing cash paid into the tote, could be piled into Parliament House, then the tote would be piled ou the racecourse and burnt as a oriminal accessory. We are not blind to the fact that gambling is inherent in many human beings, but the tote has sown the seeds in thousands of people who previously had no temptation to lay money on horses. Horse-racing is the best sport in the world—eren a " healthful and innocent recreation," as Sir George Clifford puts it. Hut its curse in this colony is the totalizator, the cold-blooded, business-like maohine that distributes money that ought to go into bosses' tills, to bakers, butchers, and grocers. •#. * *

Tilß tuto pays to the Governmnnt a percentage (if its taking*. Therefore Che Government i* an aider and abettor of dishonesty, of domestic friction, md a recruiter for the gaols. The tact that " peoplo will gnmble " is not a reason why- ili« Government should give people gmatnr opportunist for gambling. Woman will not run the family short of [lulntoas to put money on will, i.lie IxiokuMkur, but tliey will Jo wuisu things iliim tint to raise a pound for the tote. Prize-fighting i* forbidden in New Zealand, but it U clean, healthy pastime compared with betting on the tote. The nun who "strikes" a "divy" oftentimes " strikes " from work. The man who lives by his wits by betting, either on the tote, or any other way, cumbers the ground, and should be rooted up He is a curse.

To our mind, the tote is helping the spread of human weeds and watering them carefully. It seems as if the "bookie" has been hounded off the courses as an evil bjing, merely because he is the rival of a Governmen 1 . concern which is respectable, but which is an evil ten times as great as the bookie. Thousands of people be f . on the tote who don't know the capabilities of a horse, and who don't care whether a horse is flesh or metal. The tote isn't " sport." It is simply grasping, sordid greed, typified in a machine. It is dishonest because it takes money from people who cannot afford it, and passes it on to people who haven't earned it; and the Treasury steals from the people who can't afford it a percentage. All the Australian States, except one, have abolished it, while New Zealand, the white flower among the crimson blossoms, still persists in keeping the curse. In a country of " sports" the tote is a poor, pitiful thing, for it, above everything, is the murderer of true sport. If every tote in New Zealand should be burnt to-morrow a heap of sin would go up in the fumes. Put away the tote and minimise the gambling, and then, and not until then, will horse racing, the "sport of kings," become univers illy popular.