WHAT IS A "TOTE"?

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 129, 2 June 1928, Page 10

WHAT IS A "TOTE"?

DECISION RESERVE IJ

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") CHEISTCHUECH, This Day. I The Magistrate, Mr. E. D. Moslcy, i S.M., reserved his decision in the case 'in which Harold E. Goggin, acting secretary of tho Metropolitan Trotting Club, was charged with unlawfully permitting to be received an investment on the totalisatqr otherwise than on tho totalisator itself. Detective-Sergeant Young gave cviI deuce describing the position and funci tion of the windows. To Mr. Thomas, witness said that he knew of no objection *to tho outside boxes. If telephones were installed there, the lot would be synchronised. "The facts as given by DetectiveSergeant Young are correct," said Mr. Thomas. "The Act under which the charge is laid was the outcome of an agitation in 1908 to prevent betting being carried on outside the course. Witnesses prominent in the racing world will give evidence to show that the word 'totalisator' in New Zealand is not understood in a narrow dictionary sense. Tho term 'totalisator' includes the face dial, houses, tickets, and all impedimenta used to carry on a wager on the course." The Magistrate: "Well, 1 should think that is correct." ♦ Mr. Thomas: "Take Forbury Park, .Ounediii. There the dial is separate from the pay-in windows, and one cannot say that both don't belong to the .totalisator. There is actually no distinction between tho outside and - the inside totalisator, and if one has a right to pay in away from tho main house, one is entitled also to pay in at the stand." Williiiin M'Doiigall said that he was contractor Jror practically all the'rneing rind trotting clubs in and about Christchurch. The totalisator wns understood to bo the whole machinery in connection with tho reception of money. Much the same definition of a totalisator was given by Mr. T. 11. Davey, chief stipendiary steward for New Zealand. "I don't dispute the definition," said Mr. Donnelly. "It is only a question whether the defence is right.". Evidence regarding technicalities of the totalisator was given by Rupert A. Armstrong a member of tho New Zealand Trotting Association, and Hartley R. Sellers, secretary of the Now Zealand Racing Conference. "It is a very interesting case," remarked Mr. Moslcy, "and I shall reI quire time to think it over."