Hard Times.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 361, 8 October 1889, Page 2

Hard Times.

[TO THE EDITOR.]

Sir, —In the main I entirely agree with your remarks on the above subject. But I think it would have been better had you gone further and driven home the truth with that pungency of which I know your pen to be capable. And that truth I have no hesitation in saying is the deep-rooted gambling spirit which exists in the place. While we are told that the people are too poor to hold agricultural shows, ploughing or sheaiing matches, there is now a grand building almost completed near Makaraka, which is an undeniable testimony of the spirit of the place. It is impossible to get a water supply for the town, a monstrous thing to talk of drainage; an equally monstrous thing to think or talk of having good roads for the country, but we can indulge in a continuous whirl of dissipation. By what has appeared in the Standard from time to time, I believe I am right in saying that there are to be two days’ racing before Christmas, another the dav after, and four days during January or February. To do this successfully it means that an enormous amount of money must come from somewhere, and where it does come from is what I should like to know. No wonder the place is dull when the hard-earned money of the settlers and townsmen is spent in such a way as to invite a host of blacklegs, spielers, scoundrels, or whatever you call them, to our little town. That class of men take care not to come unless they are well paid for their trip, so that the district must suffer for it. lam astonished at the number of highly respected gentlemen who give patronage and countenance to such a continuity of these gatherings. I hope that someone better able to deal with the subject will take it up,, and endeavor to lead to such action as will suppress this growing evil.—l am. &c.,

Hard Times.