THE TOTE. N.S.W. RACING COMMISSION. INTERESTING EVIDENCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 3, 4 January 1912, Page 10

THE TOTE. N.S.W. RACING COMMISSION. INTERESTING EVIDENCE.

fBT TELEGBAPH — PfcKSS ASSOCIATION.} AUCKLAND, 3rd January. The New South Wales Totalisator Commission continued its sitting in Auckland. The Rev. Howard Elliott said he and his colleague, 'Rev. D. D. Scott, had come forward at the, desire of the Auckland Ministers' Association, which was constituted of the ministers of the Free Churches in Auckland, and represented 50,000 people. The chairman : You consider totalisator betting to be gambling? — "Xtes. And would you --call betting on the now fashionable game of bridge, say at lOd per 100, betting or gambling? — I would call that betting, since the player depends to a certain amount on his own skill. Do you consider that the totalisator is an. honest machine? — Yes. The' machhvqf is honest, but the morale of racing are not our . morals. They justify their ends, and do things we would not do. "To come back to the question, does the totalisator encourage betting? — It does. Is not its silence •an advantage? — ' Admittedly it does not call the" odds pr solicit betting, but there are people who bet with the 4 totalisator who would never bet with a bookmaker. An employee may go and bet at the machine without arising the same feeling of mistryst on the pjirt of his employer. Why? — BecaTise his bets are made on a different plane. ' Betting with the bookmaker does not end on the course. With the totalisator he cannot bet on the nod. The totalisator lends an appearance of respectability and safety. ' TOUTING. The chairman : Does the operation of "the totalisator not have a restrictive influence on betting? Witness : That brings me to something that I want to say. Inspector Cullen has "informed you that there is no touting for totalisator betting. We know that there is, and that it goes on to a very great extent. The chairman : The tout, I presume, acts on commission, as it were, and goes to the course to invest the money? — Just so. ___ ' Has the attention of the police not been called to this by your association? — The police matt be conversant with what is going on. But Inspector Cullen says there is no totalisator touting. Is he not a reputable .officer? — Unquestionably he is, but totalisator touting is not a statutory offence, and cases of the kind do not come within the police purview. IF A REFERENDUM WERE TAKEN. Hon. Mr. Wilson : You represent 50,000 people in this city? — Yes. .And the city's population is — what? — About 110,000. &>> that, if the abolition of the tolalisator as well as the bookmaker was put to a referendum of Auckland people, both would possibly go? — I am t.ure of it. , As it isj of the two you prefer the totalisator.' — Yes, but I am between the devil and the deep sea. I give you my answer rather than fence the question, but I want both abolished. MR> SCOTT'S EyiDENCE. The Rev. D. D. Scott said he bolieved that in New Zealand public feeling was very much adverse to the totalisator, and ventured the opinion that if a referendum was taken the machine would be wiped out of existence. The Presbyterian Church, with which he was associated, was solidly against the totalisator, and this, he considered, was a significant fact when it was remembered that the adult male membership exceeded the female membership by 10,000. The amount of . investments through the totalisator showed clearly that the machine had utterly failed to reduce gambling, but had encouraged it. Mr. B. A.. Armstrong aeserted that the volume of betting had not been affecltcd by legislation, and declar.ed that the bookmaker was even now operating as merrily as ever. Mr. C. E. Major, formerly M.P.. loi Hawera, and a norse-owner, expressed tho opinion that it was better in theinterests of horse-racing to keep bookmakers ofi the course, and to give them no legal status to bet. The unscrupulous tactics of some bookmakers tended to degrade and demoralise tlie sport, while totalisator betting possessed the fairest principle possible and minimised betting to a remarkable degree. ' It would not be possible to get a reputable body of bookmakers so long a& they had to compete against the totali3ator. Henry Edward Fenwick, an ex-book-maker, declared that credit betting with the totalisator was a fact, and well known to many. The commission concludes its sitting in Aucklaad to-morrow.