The 'Bulletin' and the Totalisator.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2644, 4 September 1906, Page 5

The 'Bulletin' and the Totalisator.

Thus the ' Bulletin,' of August 2nd, in 'favor of the legalised totalisator : " The death of the balancer, Donald McLeod, at the hands of the Flemington inob had a pathetic sequel. McLeod was the son of bravv Scotch parents at St. Anaud (Vic.). He had been a straight, honest lad while in Si. Anaud, where he had toiled as a miner. In Melbourne he went wrong, though he carefully kept all knowledge of this from the old people. When he was killed, and the newspapers were full of stories about him, the sturdy old father and mother realised something of the position for the first time. When the body reached St. Anaud the coffin was opened, and the police required the old people to identify ■ the battered corpse of their son. That was the last straw. The old mother could not sleep. She could do nothing but think of her big, sturdy lad. Within a week her brain gave way, and she had to be removed to the Sunbury Lunatic Asylum. Donald McLeod's blood is mostly on the head of ihn Church. Parliament and Gillott and Bent may be responsible in so far that they lack the courage to defy the combination of the " cloth " and the bookies, and dare not abolish bookmakers, illegal totes, scalers, balancers, welshers, and Wren by the only possible method the substitution for them of an honest, legalised tote. The Church, pawing at its dry dogma, and its dusty fetiches, makes no progress at stopping gambling. It makes a lot of progress, however, at supporting the bookie. And meanwhile McLeod is dead—dead on the church doorstep, so to speak."