The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1886. THE TOTALISATOR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2221, 16 February 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1886. THE TOTALISATOR.

'Thjs racing man's best friend, the "totalißatoiv" is in danger again. It has been .fqiind that this popular apparatus, in spite of the parljaroeqtary stamp upon it, is only legal in a huggermugger fashion, and if a party running one of these sporting tares does not cl)w?9 to pay' oVer # states, ttotti is

no law to compel him to do so. Of course the law "can be altered to meet the difficulty, but somehow or other the friends of the totalisator do not care to bring their trouble; before.the Legislature, The totalisator has been a little too successful, and hi thereby made enemies. The hitter are disposed to ask troublesome questions. ■ They want to know whether half a million, or a million, of money passes, through the instrument in the course of» year, and how much of the sums invested fail to find their way back to the pockets of the iuvestors. Times are hard, and it is suppos'ed that there is a little too much leakage of the public wealth in connection with New Zealand racing, We are almost disposed to believe that the two or three thousand blood horses of this colony cost very nearly as much as our national education, If this be so, and if it can be shown that the legalised totalisator has given a marked impetus to racing interests, it follows that a somewhat serious responsibility rests on the Legislature, We do not object to race meetings- provided they are not too numerous and do not unduly interfere with business, Unfortunately, now-a-days they are with us at brief intervals, nine months out of twelve, and it is impossible to shut our eyes to the fact that this undue frequoncy is the outcome of the totalisator, We are not prepared to main.! tain that the totalisator, like sweeps, should bo abolished, but we consider that it should be so for. modified that it /will not gulp in the future the enormous sums of money which it has swallowed in the past, aod that it should not .'retain those gigantic com■'missio]:.!) which. make investment in it a%i'tnm.loßs.'in the long run. Of course .the public are fools to put the ; {money, they 'do through . this channel, suchiopisindeHtl.thßt it.is necessary ;: : that-the legislature should consider the : ;extent : to. which; race gambling should '.bn:Jlegitimißed.';' : ;r