SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81838, 3 September 1906, Page 3

SPORTING.

CAMBLINC. (By "Moturoa.") In last Wednesday's issue a correspondent refers to my article "n the above subject.but it is very evident the writer has tint read the previous articles on the subject. If he will glance through some previous issues he will find that I have for the last two or three months written most decidedly against the greatest gambling mnehiae ever invented, and perhaps I may have somewhat helped to pave the way for that petition. As I have previously stated. I b'iieve-the to-i totalisator is respnsible for the immense amount of Rambling in ill' folonv at (Ik present tim:'. and i. to gether with a very larjre proportion of those who love horse-tai ilig. wi" K'adly assist in the endeavour to >.e cure the abolition of the totalisatoi. If the movement i- successful it will, in my opinion, tend to minim:-" gambling, hut to attempt to -;op betting entirely on horft_T.i< ing is to attempt tin- ini't-'--iliU 1 , ate! eve y sensible person is f'illy ,ri:-r- of tV fact. A Orgyman v-iied tieChriitchurcli raee* recently fe'kinn information, and in t'.ie course of hS interview with a Pre-s reporter slid.' There can he no doubt whatever that tie tita'i at'.r ha>- rnormoii-ly in creased gambling and has Indued many 11 indulge in {rambling uh> never did 50 bef.i.." 'I !i,-p I- »•• doubt that the marlum hat a":st..| in ihg spread of gambling in many wan. It has enab'ed s >mc c'ubs t-i pgift which could pot otherwise hjve

done so, and so with the increase of race meetings there is naturally an incrca cin gambling. Tnen how unjust and inconstant is the present state of things. A man the other day was sent to gaol for a month because he was a bookmaker, and conducted his business on the race course and so competed against the Government bookmaker (i.e. T0..; isator). The machine, I venture to state, has encouraged many a one to gamble who would not otherwise have done so. The mere fact of its being under the wing of thp Government and its socalled respectability, has induced some to bet who would not perhaps have approached a bookmaker. Apart from the gambling clement it has also been the undounted cause of some club's placing ridiculous restrictions on the pairons. When one enters the gate of some racecourses he is, to a great extent, deprived of his liberty for the time being. He is also prevented by every possible means from communicating with t'le outside world until he hns been en courageel to spend his last shilling on the toialisator. With these c|ubs, the totalisator returns forms the p.inupal matter for consideration by the Stewards, and, as a Southern paper states: The meeting begins and ends with toialisator receipts. 7 ' Such a meeting has degenerated into a money making concern to the detriment of all true sport. Get rid of the machine, and then clubs will have to give more consideration to the welfare of owners and the public. "Phaeton" in the N. Z. Herald rays: the totalisator has done much to make racing take a more sordid shape than was the case in the 'good old days.' Do we ever find that fine spirit of friendliness on our race courses that was so marked a feature in the old days and which contributed so much to invest the racing with a charm? Should the machine go. there will no doubt be withdrawals, but though a curtailment can in addition be anticipated, racing wiil still go on, and perhaps the good old spirit which pervaded old time sport may once again be with us.

Mr J. Beckett, who has had considerable e.vperiencc on the Turf in New Zealand and Australia, writing to the "New Zealand Herald," states, in the course of his remarks on the Totalisator : The only strong argument, from a racing point of view, adduced in its favour is that it causes big stakes to be given away. Assuming it does, but who participates in them? Not the needy, or middleman, but invariably the rich. What benefits them to the detriment of the poor cannot be good to the community. I might state that Mr G. G. Stead, Sir George Clifford, the Hon. G. McLean, and a few other prominent men who advocate the contimn ance of the totalisator verv rarely gamble on it. tt'hv? Because it's unprofitable. .* . . What is the reason of so much tote odds being Kid in New Zealand and bookmaking made easy and simple? The totalisator. What element of sport is there attached to backing a horse in Aulkland at tote odds when the races are run at Invercargill or elsewhere ? Is it not in a case of that kind a misnomer to call it "the sport of kings'' ? Gambling on horseracing can never be entirely suppressed; that is a recognised fact. Then whv not confine it as much as possible to the place set apart for it ? There would be no such thing as tote odds If there was no torabsator, and the gambling that took place would be confined principally to the racecourse— not as now, away from it..