The Totalisator.

White Ribbon, Volume 12, Issue 136, 15 September 1906, Page 7

The Totalisator.

Mu Ell’s Totalizator Hill is dead, hut tlu* opponents of the engine of destruction are in nowise east down. Firstly, the vote taken revealed the fact that the friends of morality in the present House are no insignificant minoritv 29 as against *\o advocates of legalising vice. Secondly, there is promise th.it the matter will he revived during the present session, Mr Ell having given notice of his intention to introduce the repeal clauses when the Gaming and Lotteries Act Amendment Hill is before Parliament. Thirdly, on 10th inst., a large and influential deputation, consisting of Parliamentary representatives, ministers of various churches, the Mayor of Wellington and other

citizens, waited on the Premier, for the purjx>se of urging on the (rovemment the necessity o f (1) the abolition of the totalisator, ( m 2) the isolation of racecourses from telegraphic and telephonic communication, and (‘T making tin* publication of betting news in the daily papers illegal. Mr Kll introduced the deputation, and the I‘rentiers reception of its views, as voiced by several gentlemen, was markedly sympathetic. He promised to give the matters full consideration, and expressed the lio|k* of being aide to assist “in preventing the growth of what is a very great evil in this country. The Christchurch I'rrss, true to its platform, champions the cause of the totalisator. It reiterates the specious plea that Acts of Parliament cannot make folk moral, and then gravely concludes its remarks bv saying that “ those who wish to prevent gambling’ (which the I’rtss evidently does not) “must create a feeling against it.’ Is not this precisely what the totalisator abolitionists are striving to do? The special curse attached to the machine is that the State lias through it sanctioned tin* vice, and, in the eyes of the thoughtless and the young, made it respectable.