THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1911. THE "TOTE" CONDEMNED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10446, 11 October 1911, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1911. THE "TOTE" CONDEMNED.

The cable from Sydney,, .stating that Mr "Dick" iMason, the well-known New Zealand trainer, has strongly condemned the totalisator, reads unseemly like a joke. Those who have heard of Satan reproving sin will appreciate the humour of the statement of the veteran "Dick," when he says mat "tote" ibetting has hecome a craze in New Zealand, and that (many workers have not a penny to draw at the end of the week. They will also admire the noble sentiment which prompted the New Zealand trainer to isay that butchers and 'bakers had to go without their money while many of their debtors "splashed" it on the totalisator. The picture of women tearing their clothes and going unad in the rush to get totalisator tickets is almost as pathetic as the statement that "rac-

ing is now cheap and nasty, and most studmasters have 'been foroed to sell out," is grotesque. Mr E. J. Mason is just the last man one would look to in the world for a disquisition on the evils of gambling— , particularly through, the totalisator. If he had stated the facts, he would have said that the totalisator is the only medium (by which studmasters live, and the greatest support the .Racing id lib s of the Dominion possesses. Without it, ninety per cent, of the racing dubs in the Dominion womd go under, unless, perchance, .the wily bookmaker were again brought into legal existence. This is where the shoe pinches. The bookmakers have been extinguished (that is to say, (tliey are legally dead) in New Zealand, and the training fraternity, which has used them as an. .adjunct to the totalisator, is not pleased. And now an attempt is being made to introduce the totalisator into Australia, which would necessarily give the 'bookmakers in existence over ther a severe shock. Is it to be wondered, at, in these circumstances, that the burly ' 'Dick" Mason should anathematise the "tote" ? (He cannot seriously do so; but it probably pleases the bookmakers on the other side that he should talk of the ,tote-betting craze. What would happen if the totalisator were to go in New Zealand, and the IbookmaJcer were to le j substituted? Why, the butcher and j baker, and the candle-stick jnaker ( as well, iwould suffer. The totalisato/ is not -» thing'which isviise<Lat <a Sunday School picnic. It is not< quite the acme of virtue. But, as a medium fbr @ainbling, .it thousand,, times to be>, preferred .to the. streetbettor. It does not ask men and children to - iS; not'connected, with the telephone system. It gives credit. It does not, as a. rule, take wagers of less than a pound. It does not "welsh." If it is a ques- j tion of iclloosing the lesser evil, then the totalisator will be selected every time, and in spite of "Dick" Masop, or "Jack" Wren, or anybody else who poses as a moralist, with an axt. to grind. The gamibling evil cannot be condoned by any person who has at heart the moral welfaie of the community. But, if, 'there piust be gamibling—and apparently there must, in the meantime—then let it Ibe confined to the racecourse and to those who can afford to indulge in it. It would be interesting to know what is "Dick" Mason's opinion of the .bookmaker. The (Sydney interviewer has not, appa.viicly, troubled him on this point. But there, are a few people in New Z° iland who know, and they can afford to laugh at the Canterbury sportsman's little joke about the "tote. '