THE TOTALISATOR ABOLITION MOVEMENT

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8242, 21 September 1906, Page 7

THE TOTALISATOR ABOLITION MOVEMENT

SPEECH BY MR DAVEY, M.H.R. "I think I kuow something about racing in New Zoaiaud, and -while i would strongly object to any increase in gambling, 1 do say distinctly that the fairett and beat method of gambling I kuow of is the totalisator, beoause, as the honourable member for the Buy of Plenty has said, it does not run away. Just let us look back a few years and remember what tho raoeoourse was then. It was simply a pandemonium: men perched on boxes dressed aa clowns or harlequins yelling out tho odds. Sir, the totalisator has enabled clubs to find the money to pay valuable stakes, also to improve their courses, and that they have done. Now, no steward of a racing club secures oue penny-piece that goes through the machine. Every Bteward is trying to do his best to enlarge the stakes and to improve courses and general conveniences for the public benefit. Is there a man in New Zealand today who oaunot see something more iu a horse tnan a mere opportunity to back him to fiin a certain raoeY 1 give way to no man in tho OoSocy in my admiration for a good horse, or any other form of lower animal lite. If you do away with the totalisator you will bring in the bad old state of things that existed when horses had to be looked up at night, and men had to walk round tbe stables with revolvers to keep their horses from being nobbled. Now, whether raoiug is right or wrong, whether gambling is preventable or not, 1 can absolutely ■ prove that in the old days the diffl-

oalfcy in connection with ruoiag was to Beoure promotion frum the thief. That is not to to day. Now, we should also remember this: that there must be some vent for men and women of New Zealind from their ordinary hum-drum existence. They will go somewhere, be it to a racecourse, to a bicycle meeMng, to a foot-race, to a rowing competition, of something of that kind. And 1 say there is not harm iu simple horse-racing. We' are told that there is so muoh money pu„ through the totalisator every year, nod that it means so much per head of the population. Now.it means not'bing of the kind, for the - money that goes ttirouEh the totalisator iB invested over and over again. The totalisator stands inoflensibly on the racecourse. You may, of course, say there is an invitation to bet The publiohouse offers the same temptation to drink, and the lollie-shop suggests the temptation to buy sweetmoats. But you are not oblige! to bet or to buy whisky or lollies. It is the betting of the men in the street the movei- should stop—the man who wants tu get bets on every tin pot event in the colony. If the honourable gentleman (Mr Ell) will oonfine his Bill to stopping that kind of betting, and allow betting on the racecourse alone, he might effect some good. 'lnere is one important point I would like to mention. It is this: the stewards of the raoing clubs, I fear, do not carry out the functions for which they are appointed. For instance, they are directed to take 10 per cent from the money placed on the machine. Now, they take a great deal more—sometimes 20 per cent, sometimes 25 per cent —of the money placed ou the machine. To that J strongly object I woalfi like to know, if it were •possible, what are the fractions from totalisator investments, and what is the amount of money per year that is unclaimed. We never receive that information. The Gov eminent is supposed to receive I}£ per oenl from the total money placed on the machine, but they do not receive it. The receive \% per cent only on the amount paid in dividends, but not one the amount placed on the maobine. 1 will endeavour to explain my point. Some clubs have a pound machine and a ten-shilling ma-

obine. They work oat the dividend on the ten-shilling machine to, say, 1b 9d or la lOd or Is lid; they do not pay down to 6d, bat to Is. The dividend works out to Is lid; they doable tbis ap and place it on the pound maobine: this means that the investor on the pound maobine not only pays 10 per oent, but loses la lOd m addition. Though lam going to vote against the Bill, 1 say this; if the honournble gentleman is successful at this or Bny otber time, the racing clubs are mainly responsible for the abolition of the totalisator. I should like to see the raoing clubs in New Zealand do the same as in France and South Australia, where the fractions from the totalisator are paid to charities. Many Hundreds of people go to our races—"Soores who by no chance would ever put tbeir hands into their pockets and pay £1 to a charity, but would risk ten on the totalisator—and I say that these men should be mulcted m the fractious at least, which should go to oharitins. If the clubs would, every Ohristmas, when thousands of poor are wanting food and blankets and ooal, pay £25 or £SO or £IOO to a charity it might perhaps break down the ODposition now extended to me by my colleague. Raoing properly conducted is absolutely the best sport in the colony. There is no finer sight than to see half a dozen horses fighting to a bitter struggle. I Will assist my colleague to reduce the percentage from 10 per cent, to iy„ per oent. if be will move that, or'reduoe the days of racing; but I do not think he is right In saying 'No totalisator.' To-night I must vote against him. I hope to be able to assist my fellow-members to make raoing cleaner, if possible, than it is to-diy."—Hansard.