$100,00 a day put through totalisator

A scene on the Owaka River, showing Jacob's Hill in the background. - Otago Witness, 3.1.1917.
A scene on the Owaka River, showing Jacob's Hill in the background. - Otago Witness, 3.1.1917.
That the twenty-ninth month of the war finds New Zealand imperfectly awake may be inferred from a fact emphasised this week by the Daily Times - that for eight consecutive days following Boxing Day we put more than 100,000 a day through the totalisator.

This is mere damnation. We may say, of course, that, in putting money through the totalisator we only shuffle it from pocket to pocket; nothing is lost, not even the Government tax. Which is true; - along with the spirit of frivolity and the greed of grab, its concomitants, the totalisator money is ``still there''.

Not so the money spent in racing stables, in railway trains on the 300 and odd racing days in the year, in feminine bedizenments for the grand stand.

Money spent in these things is money burned. Well, we can afford it, says somebody, - meaning that we have got money to burn. We have, and thereby hangs a tale.

Look on this picture and on that - the money the war has given us, and the money we have given to the war. Do we perceive a proportion consistent with self-respect? Our patriotic funds, of which we are proud, won't save us.

•A great deal of trouble will be saved the Military Service Board when men who are called up learn that physical unfitness is not a ground of appeal to the Military Service Board, but purely a matter for the Medical Board to deal with.

Every day appellants come before the Military Service Board pleading unfitness, but unless they can bring evidence of rejection by the Medical Board, the Military Service Board has no option but to dismiss the appeal or adjourn it to enable the appellants to be medically examined.

Not that the appellants are always to blame, for they often complain that they cannot get the Medical Board when they want it. In this connection anyone who follows the proceedings of the Military Service Board must be struck with the waste of time and inconvenience caused through lack of co-ordination between the operations of the two boards.

In the natural course one would expect that the Medical Board would precede the Military Service Board in its work, and thus give all intending appellants a chance to know how they stand physically.

As it is, numbers of difficult cases occupy the time and thought of the Military Service Board, when all the time there is a likelihood that whatever its decision may be, the matter may really be determined by the dictum of the Medical Board.

At Balclutha yesterday the Military Service Board adjourned six cases for medical examination.

•Last Sunday afternoon, Plimmerton beach was the scene of considerable excitement. Taking advantage of the beautiful weather and an ideal sandy beach, many visitors were enjoying a bathe, when, to the horror of onlookers, a large shark, from 7ft to 9ft in length, made its appearance near them.

The bathers hurriedly left the water and the shark continued to patrol up and down the bathing spot for some hours. At times he was quite near shore, in not more than 18 inches of water.

Many of the residents fired at him with shot guns, but without effect, and eventually he was hooked to a snapper line, but broke away again in a few minutes.

- ODT, 6.1.1917.

COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ

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