THE TOTALISATOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19170, 9 November 1925, Page 7

THE TOTALISATOR.

THE VICTORIAN PROPOSAL.

OPPOSITION BY CLERGY.

In a sermon at the Collins Street ! Baptist Church in Melbourne recently, the I Rev. W. D. Jackson referred to the proposed introduction of the totalisator in | Victoria. He said that many church | people, not from any carping spirit, were j opposed to the Government's suggestion. [ The plea had been made that revenue was required for charities, and that 12 per cent, on totalisator investments would provide between £200,000 and £3OO 000. ! Surely a community which coald afford j to risk £2,500,000 in betting conld bear | £250,000 in extra direct and straighti forward taxation. | A year or two ago England had rejected a proposed tax ou betting, said Mr. Jackson, even though heavily burdened with post-war taxation, and surely Victoria could afford to do without revenue from the totalisator. The plea was also put forward that the totalisator would do good by eliminating the book- : maker. Many experienced observers, ; however, doubted whether it had done so ■in other States. Charities, which ought ! to he a first charge on the generosity and I sacrifice of the people, was to be regarded j as a last charge upon a form of amusement concerning the ethics of which , opinion was divided. I At the Wesley Church on thei same day | the Rev J. H. Cain declared that never had the people been so incensed as they i were regarding the present proposal. ! Three years ago a similar measure had i been introduced, bnt it had been dej feated in the House. He had been told then by a member of Parliament that its defeat would mean that the proposal wnnH be shelved for 10 years. The matter had been again brought forward, and the people would require to fight it to the last ditch. Preaching at the Auburn Methodist Church the Rev. B. W. Heath remarked that the State Ministry was making the sacred cause of charity an excuse for introducing the iniquitous totalisator, which would ultimately defeat its own ends, apart from going far to justify the unenviable reputation Australia was gaining of being a nation of gamblers. The proposal had shocked the moral sense of thousands of loval supporters of the Ministry, and should lead to its ignominious overthrow. It was a humiliating confession of moral weakness on the part of the Ministry, and elnouently proclaimed its absolute ineptitude and incapacity for financial administration.