"THE SMALL MINORITY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 184, 7 August 1933, Page 6

"THE SMALL MINORITY."

ETHICS OF GAMBLING.

(To the Editor.)

I regret that Mr. E. S. Hale regarded my letter as a "sneer." It was certainly not intended as suoli, but dimply a bare statement of fact that New Zealand is greatly suffering 'from "minority rule," -which Mr. Hale apparently admits, but attempts to justify. I have 110 wish to compel Mr. Hale to play tennis or r . o if on Sunday, but I contend that he has no more right to debar me from doing so than a Seventh Day Adventist who closes his establishment on a Saturday has a right to compel others to do likewise. After all, it is a matter of one's own point of view. A man invests a sum of money in an art union with the hope of a return (the larger the better) for his outlay. Is not this really the principle underlying all business, especially as regards "•old mines and dealings on the Stock Exchange ? A man buys a piece of land for, say, £100 and has the good luck to sell it a few years later for £2000. Is not the "unearned increment" actually, as Mr. Hale says, "getting money for nothing, or practically nothing"? Of course, the purchaser might have struck an era of depression and not been able to sell the land for half of what it cost him. In that case, the luck would have-been against him. Mr. Hale is singularly unfortunate in his_ statement that "those who get -without earning are thieves, legally or otherwise." If he were left a le™acv to-morrow of £5000, would he decline to accept it on the ground that if lie did he would be a thief because he had not earned it ? Which reminds mo that recently a lady left a substantial sum to one of the Churches in New Zealand, but so far I have not heard that it has been refused because it was not earned. As for art unions being demoralising, as some claim, they are probably not jriore demoralising than the law which compels a magistrate to fine a man for bookmaking or a Chinaman for playing pakapoo, but permits the same magistrate to attend the racecourse and back "his fancy," or proceed to his club and play bridgo at ono shilling a hundred. I sadly fear we are a nation of hypocrites! Might I suggest that the "small minority" cultivate a broaderminded outlook towards the "majority"? JUNIUS JUN.