CORRESPONDENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2604, 11 September 1909, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Correspondence on public matters is welcomed at all times, but it must bo distinctly understood that this journal is in no way associated with the opinions of its correspondents. All lettors must be legibly written and inscribed on one side of the paper only, other-, wise they will not be published. *An asterisk at the foot of a letter indicates that some portion has been excised.]

MINISTERS OF THE CROWN ON

GAMBLING

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —At the opening of a new Tattersall’s Club in Wellington (a few days ago there were present the Hon. J. A. Millar and the Acting-Premier (the Hon. Jas. Caraol). Now, when it is admitted by all right-thinking persons and all those who have the interests of the Dominion at heart that gambling and horse-racing are two of the greatest curses we have to contend with it may be interesting to note what these two gentlemen have to say on the subject. The Hon. Millar said * ‘that it seemed to him there-was no difference between taking £IOO t.o 10s or the ris’k of his house being burned down and taking £IOO to 10s on the fesult of a horse race. They knew the totalisator was a life-giving fountain as far as the racing clubs were _con<jerned, but they should give facilities for those who believed in investing money with a human machine as well as a dead machine. Just fancy such ideas frpm a Minister of the Crown. A ‘ ‘life-giving fountain,” he terms it. I should say if he said the ‘‘blood-seek-ing octopus of the community” it would be nearer the mark. I would ask Mr Millar why not be consistent and allow all forms of betting and gambling to exist? Why should the poor Chinaman who indulges in his little game of pak-a-poo be hauled up as a criminal and fined £IOO, as was the case m Wellington about a srear5 r ear ago, or why should the working mail who cannot afford a pound on the totalisator get put m gaol for indulging in the game of twoup” for pennies? Mr Millar was "well backed up by our own. member, the Hon. Jas. Carroll, who said * as for the bookmakers, he had had personal experience of them, and had found them good samples of manhood. - 1 attersall’s Club should be a graduating school for bookmakers , etc.’ Well, all I can say, is that if the gentlemen who ply their calling and disturb . the harmony of a race meeting with their aggressive voices of “two to one, bar one ” are a fair sample of the class that the hon. gentlemen speak sc highly of, I am afraid I cannot compliment him on the company he keeps. I am, etc., £i PTJRE SPORT.”