GAMBLING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2619, 29 September 1909, Page 7

GAMBLING.

The speeches of the Acting-Prime Minister (the Hon. J. Carroll) and the Minister for Railways (Mr J. A. Millar) at the opening of Tattersalls Club appear to have severely shocked a large section of the public, and even some of the Ministerialist papers. The local Ministerial morning journal is very severe on the two Ministers, as well as on the Club. Yet the attitude of the two members of the Government named above is quite consistent with the whole policy of the Government. Did not this Government introduce a Bill to encourage bookmakers—and, incidentally, spielers and welshers, and all of a like class, who shelter under the protecting clause which legalises the profession of bookmaking P Did not Dr Findlay go out of his way to- warn the Racing Clubs that the Government had its eyes on them, and that the interests of the bookmakers were being watched by the Government ? Why then all this bother over two Ministers of the Crown commending an institution which is really an adjunct to the particular forml of gambling legalised and encouraged by the Government? We can qui/e understand that those opposed to gambling on horse-racing—and even those who, like ourselves, regard the tbtalisator, which only bets at/ the racecourses and does not canvass for wagers, as preferable to the bookmakershould protest against the conduct or the Ministers, but the outbursts from the Ministerial journal and other friends of the Government strikes us as being both inconsistent and ungrateful. The arguments used by the Ministers in support of their attitude are not really worth attention. It astonishes us to find the Acting-Prime Minister and the Minister for Railways going out of their way to utter such nonsense in defence of such a cause. “TattersallV ’ may hav© its uses, hut we sincerely trust that it will never be the headquarters of athletic sport of any kind in New Zealand.—“ The Dominion.”