The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1894. THE TOTALISATOR.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6987, 14 February 1894, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1894. THE TOTALISATOR.

We have just received a Parliamentary paper containing returns winch show, first, " the total number of permits issued, and days of Taring when the totalisator was used, during the past four years"; and, secondly, "the percentage paid to the Treasury from the use of the totalisator during 18!)2- ( J3."' In 1889-00 the total number of totalisator licenses issued was 187, and the total number of days of racing on which the use of the totalisator was authorised was 2-11 ; in 1890-1)1 the numbers were respectively 21!) and 27S ; in 181)1-92, 2U and 300; and in 18D2S);J they were 240 and 307. The percentages paid to the Treasury from the investments on the totalisator in the several provincial districts of the coiony for the year from Ist April, 1892, to 31st March, 1893, were as follows :—Auckland, .£189718s 5d ; Taranaki, £44i) lus yd : Wellington, Ji2509 5s Dd ; Hawke's Bay, £1125 9s 8d ; Nelson, £100 4s 10d ; Marlborough, £50 lls Sd ; Canterbury, £212!) Is 8d ; Otago, £1580 13s 4d ; Southland, £303 6s ; Westland, £042 ss—the total amount being £10,800 lls od. It will thus bo seen that the number of racing days under the totalisator regime is steadily increasing, there being an increase of nearly 30 per cent in three years. This is anything but a satisfactory result, as an increase in the number of racing days means an increase of the gambling mania, which is doing far more to corrupt the community than the liquor trallic. Even although the total amount invested be decreasing, every additional race meeting tends to spread the evil, as it makes more gamblers. The bookmaker, a very objectionable character, has indeed been practically banished from the turf in the colony, but a far worse evil has been created. The legalising of gambling is itself a great curse. It makes the unthinking believe that there can bo nothing wrong in the practice seeing that it is lawful. And tho consequence is that there is scarcely an errand boy or a servant girl in the colony who does not save up to invest in the totalisator. Some may say there is no great harm in this, that their investments are small, and that their possible losses cannot be very serious. But even if this were true,

which it is not, for a small loss to a poor person is quite as serious, in most cases

far more serious, than a large loss to a rich or well to do person, there remains

the far more serious loss to character. The gambling spirit is, in the majority, only another name for some of the basest qualities oE our nature—greed, cunning, deceit, fraud. Has not the word jockeyship, which is closely connected with gambling, come to mean roguery ?

It is a common saying that children and youths should never touch drink, butjt is to our mind far more deplorable that they should be turned into

little sharpers. The very school children are being contaminated. It is all very well for people who have plenty of money to invest a pound or two for amusement. If the totalisator meant nothing worse than this there would not be very much harm in it. But we have no hesitation in saying

that it is demoralising the whole community by making gambling not only in a sense cheap and easy, but also

in a sense respectable. The Government itself takes tribute of the "accursed thing"—actually pays to some extent for the education of the colonial youth out of the vice of the people ! Let us repeat that the evil caused by the totalisator is not to be measured by the money invested; the real indictment is that it has popularised gambling, and so helped in a very appreciable degree to harden and deprave the community. It will be interesting to know what a Parliament in the election of which the women of the colony played such a conspicuous part will have to say on this subject. So far as we remember the political women ' gave gambling a pretty wide berth in their electioneering speeches and manifestoes in December last ; but though they may not agree with us that gambling at the present time is a greater evil than drink, we hope they will lend a hand to cleanse the colony from the totalisator abomination.