The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY,- NOVEMBER 2,1909.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2648, 2 November 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY,- NOVEMBER 2,1909.

0 “IT MUST BE STOPPED.”

These were the words with which the Premier voiced his sentiments upon the question of racecourse gambling when deputationised in Wellington last week. It is evident from the full reports published in the Wellington papers that the deputation which included a number of clergymen of various denominations, several members of IPhrliament-, gome _ ladies, and many well-known -citizens, was .sufficiently influential to impress Sir Joseph Ward, and the facts they presented commanded attention from the head of the- Government. Of course, the Premier’s remarks quoted above were not intended to mean that all gambling was to bo stopped, but that the rank abuses, of which the petitioners complained, sho-uld..be. The speakers,. who voiced the views of a large section of the community, deemed it ■polite to .give the Government credit for .good intentions in respect of the legislation passed in 1907, but stated that the results, had been most unsatisfactory. It was mentioned by one speaker that the clause forbidding newspapers to give tips or to publish betting news had proved a great gain from the anti-gambling standpoint, but, on the other hand, there had been no effective restriction of the number of race meetings held, and these- had, in consequence, increased to quite an alarming extent. The only restriction in this respect was the Racing Conference, “but,” commented a speaker,

“that was a rotten reed for any statesman or -public body to lean upon.” The remarks made by the Rev. J. J. North under this heading are important. He said:

The conference was composed of thoroughly disorganised elements, and represented widely different strains of feeling. .He said this in order to emphasise the entirely unreliable character of the only safeguard that the community had from the multiplication of racing days. Proprietary clubs had been started, and the conference had decided to disqualify any jockeys riding at such meetings, yet one of the main props of the conference had his name registered on the share-list of the most notorious club in the whole of the country. The conference had always been flouting the Government. Last year the Government issued 152 permits, which covered 292 racing days. These were all absorbed by 99 clubs, and 157 other clubs, managed and controlled by the same conference, all ran their races in excess of the permits the Government had granted.

The deputation evidently gained in strength and influence from the abuses that have been allowed to exist in V ellington itself. It was stated that

Until the recent legislation came into force there were only eight days racing in and about Wellington, while now there were sixty-eight rac-ing-days close to the city in the twelve months. The proprietary clubs responsible for this state of things were now in their initial stage, and could be easily squashed. They were simply organised for the making of profits—one recent Saturday afternoon at Miramar resulted in a profit of £3s4—while there was no proper control at all, and the .paragraphs appearing in the papers were simply lurid with the crookedness and possible plucking of the public by them.

The present situation is the inevitable outcome of the action taken by the Premier in 1907. For years a controversy was in progress as to which was the greater evd, the totalisator or the bookmaker. The totalisator was introduced with the object of ousting the bookmaker, but it never achieved that object. After trying for many years the operation of the totalisator, during which the only public agitation was not for giving the bookmaker a better status but for the abolition oi the totalisator altogether, the Ward Government came to light with a measure giving the bookmaker 'a legal status equal to that of the machine. On this point Mr A. R. Atkinson attributed the nature of the legislation passed to the sympathy the bookmaker had been able to command in the last Parliament, and the Premier appears to have admitted the truth of this when in his reply he virtually apologised tor the Act ho had fathered. He said: The Bill generally contained some most important provisions, but as the House was constituted at the time he knew it was the easiest thing in the world to prevent it .going through at all. Thor© was. a strong party in the House that was favorable to the continuance of the totalisator, while another wanted the bookmaker to have the same right on the course, so that the only way to get the legislation through was to put both together and allow, gambling on the course to bb carried on. ‘ This reads like the flimsiest kind of excuse, and when we remember that the Bill was introduced in the dying hours of the session the Government methods ... appear all the more unpardonable. According to iSii) Josephs own showing he rushed through a Bill dealing with a most intricate problem using as his only guide liis favorite principle, of compromise,, and the result was a legislative botch that never could be satisfactory. Now Sir Joseph has pledged himself to support the questions of the existence of the totalisator or bookmakers being referred direct to the people by means of a referendum. This, of course, Is but another exemplification of the Premier s

■disinclination to face a straight-out issue on any subject, but in its results it may prove more satisfactory than any legislation his Government would be likely to place on the Statute Book. Gambling is undoubtedly a national evil that has long since attained the dimensions where it becomes a serious menace to the public ‘welfare. Legislation cannot entirely prohmit gambling, for the spirit of speculation is inherent in the human race, but it can and should prevent the opportunities for gambling of the grosser kind from being so numerous that it is inevitable that one of the least creditable of our faculties should receive more encouragement than any other. The legalisation of totalisators and of bookmakers at racing meetings results in what in itself is a decent sport being humiliated into- a medium for gambling. The present position is that the State receives a substantial amount of revenue from totalisator receipts and thus trades on the gambling instructs of the people. The position is degrading. It is difficult to say what is the proper solution of the gambling problem, but most certainly the existing abuses should not be tolerated. Horse racing should stand on its own footing as a sport and not depend for its existence upon the facilities it offers for the operations of gamblers. Put “the sport of kings,” as its devotees proudly call it, on the same level as cricket and lootball and it would be interesting to note which would retain the greatest hold upon the community. However, the only profitable attitude for the present is to await the Government measure, and if a referendum does nothing else it will certainly place the whole country in a turmoil until the voting has been taken.