CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 222, 19 March 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE TOTALISATOR. The totalisator case heard in Nelson the other day should serve to remind the officials of racing clubs and the managers of betting machines that the law' affecting them contains stringent provisions (says the Lyttelton Times). We doubt if one out of every thousand racegoers realises how drastic the legislation is, and we are quite sure that very few of the racing clubs comply with its requirements. In the Nelson case it is evident that the authorities, anxious to take the money of tardy investors, kept the machine open so long that investments had to be registered after the appointed time for starting the race. This, it must be admitted, is a very common offence, from which the totalisators even on metropolitan courees are not free. There is a difficulty, perhaps, in the popular i»terpretation of the word "registered" and the prevailing idea is that provided the sale of tickets ceases at the proper time the internal operations of the machine are no concern of the -law. But sub-section •2 of section 32 of the Act of 1908 is very positive:—"lt shall not be lawfal for any. member, officer, agent, or servant of any racing club to register on the totalisator after the time notified by such club for the starting of any race any moneys received for investment in respect of that race, or <o take into account in the calculation or payment of any dividend any investment which has not been p'ublicly registered on the totalisator in accordance with this section." Clubs endeavor to protect themselves by closing the totalisator a few minutes before the advertised time of starting each race, but the law plainly contemplates that the total investments on all the horses and the grand total on the race should be shown publicly before the race actually starts, and very few clubs indeed can claim to comply with the legislation to this extent. ' The Auckland Racing Club.. v„ understand, has got over the difficulty by installing an appliance for the automatic registration of investments, but clubs that cannot afford such a luxury must simply make the best of the position by closing promptly and bv teaching the gambling public to make their investments early, even if the instrii'tion has to be paid for in disappointment on one side and reduced percen' ages on the other.

Aft OTHERS SEE I'S. "Xow Zealand has given tlio load in many directions," said Earl Grey, speaking at the Mew Zealand Club. Wellington, tlie otlier day. "And how eon it fail to give the lead wlien we consider its position? Tam one of I hose people who believe that leaders of thought come, as a rule, from little countries, whose people live by the sea and amid the mountains." They had these conditions here, and had a superb climat;, and in many characteristics these happv isles of New Zealand were just the counterpart of the British Isles., "Your people were the first to resolve unanimously to assist the Crown in its endeavor to assert the principle of equal rights in South America," he continued, "and to your undying credit you sent n contribution in men which was a larger percentage of your population than another portion of the Empire. Again, although your population is only half that of the province of Ontario in Canada, your contribution of a Dreadnought in a moment of emergency filled the whole Empire with new hope and exultation, which was further stirred by the proof of your disinterested Imperialism, in allowing your battleship to serve the Crown wherever it might be most wanted in any part of the world, however far from your own shores."

WAIt AND WASTE. The subject of "War and Waste" was dealt witli in a chatty style by Professor Jordan, of California, in an address at Melbourne last week. There was, he said, nothing in the worldTlor Great Britain and Germany to quarrel over, and no pretence of anything. There was mo money to carry on a great

war, so much being wasted in prepar.tlion for war. There cimid not lie :'i great European war, because tlie interests of the people were so interlocked. There never had been, and there never would he, a humane war. One of the fruits of warfare was the perversion of history. The army of no country, according to the history of that country, hud ever been defeated except through treachery. Professor Jordan brushed aside in a phrase or two all risk of Japanese invasions, declaring that Japanese capitalists would not. and Japanese without capitai could not, ;,<o abroad. When money was wasted in war the people suffered. It had been truly said that wars were no', paid for in war times; the bill came later. Rut the great indictment against war was that it claimed the strongest men and destroyed them, leaving the race to no propagated by weaklings. That was the only thing that had ever brought down a great nation.