GAMBLING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2623, 4 October 1909, Page 3

GAMBLING IN NEW ZEALAND.

MINISTERS AND TATTERSALL’S CLUB.

The subject of gambling was introduced at the meeting of the Christchurch Presbyterian Church Association last week, in an address by Mr. D. Bates, dealing with some suggested amendments in the existing legislation for the welfare of the community. He said he believed that the characteristic vice of the British nation was its love of pleasure, one form of which was gambling. The principal evil resulting from gambling was the waste of money by those who could not afford it, with the result that others dependent on them wore deprived of their just rights. Success in gambling was almost always attended with effects that tended to demoralise a good and useful citizen into a drone. Gambling, however, was nqt intrinsically vicious or harmful, for it was another form of the speculation and enterprise without which the progress of a people would be extremely; slow. As it was not possible to prohibit gambling altogether, he suggested that it should be moderated by some such homeopathic means as had been adopted in France, where lotteries were conducted by the State. A man who placed £1 on tlie- totalisator could lose his money in five minutes, but in the case of .a. lottery he could obtain excitement prolonged over three months for ss. The late Mr. Seddon had once said that the people would forgive mistakes but they would not countenance inaction. The system could be tried, and if it proved harmful, abolished. Two of the three speakers expressed themselves strongly onnosed to any such innovation, and the chairman (Mr. J. Mitchell) said that the Association had no sympathy with any proposal to license gambling in any . form, and he believed Mr. Bates was quite alone in this opinion on the matter. The chairman moved' —“That this meeting enters an emphatic protest against the action of the acting-Prcmicr and the Minister of Railways in attending the opening of .& Tattersall’s Club in Wellington, and by their presence giving countenance to gambling; and that copies of the resolution be forwarded to the Ministers concerned.” The chairman said that he was extremely gratified by the manner in which the newspapers throughout the Dominion had commented upon this matter and unanimously condemned the action of the Ministers. _ _ The motion was seconded by Mr. u. Burn, who said that he hoped that the motion would in. some measure awaken the Ministers to a. sense of the manner they had outraged the feelings of the better class of people in New Zealand. i . The motion was carried unanimously.