The Press. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1894. GAMBLING IN GOD'S NAME.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8793, 14 May 1894, Page 4

The Press. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1894. GAMBLING IN GOD'S NAME.

We have a little bone to pick with the Churches on the question of the gambling evil. Clergy of all denominations, we believe, regard gambling as one of the seven deadly sins, as one of the mosc insidious vices that corrupt society. And, on the whole, justly so—although, as in the case of drink, it is tte abuse, the excessive indulgence only, that is pernicious. Sweeping condemnation of gambling like sweeping condemnation of everything else would be stupid. Insurance, for example, is gambling ; the insurer when he pays his premium enters into a is essentially a wager. He takes long odds that he will not die or his home not be burnt down within the period which the premium covers — the ''price" varying with his chances of life or the structure of his dwelling. Yet no one would seriously condemn life or fire insurance as a "vice. So, too, many commercial transactions, to say nothing of dealings on 'Change, are essentially gambling, yet are perfectly legitimate business. But of course no one will deny that gambling for amusement, if carried to excess, is a very grave social evil, and calls into play some of the worst passions of human nature. We have no quarrel with the Churches, therefore, because they condemn gambling; our complaint is against their own practice of it.

For, strange though io, may seem, many of the clergy, while eloquent in their denunciations of the vice in others, do uoc scruple to counteuance it themselves*:. view araceeourse with abhorrence; t they regard a card pack as the-devil's book, and "Yankee grab" ac the invention of the powers of darkneas : yet have no qualms of conscience when the dice are rattled or the lotto box span in the interests of Church finance. They are never tired of denouncing the newspaper Press, because in catering for all the varied tastes of its readers it gives prominence to advertisements and reports of race meetings or billiard contests; they would probably te very much shocked, however, if the papers virtuously refused to insert reports of bazaars on the ground of their encouragement of gambling. Yet we have good reason for saying that many church bazaars do as much to encourage the passion for hazard as the operations of the ring or the machine. Christchurch itself has quite recently furnished a powerful illustration of the truth of this in the Carnival at the Tuam street Hall. We did not condemn i& while it was in progress, because whatever its methods its aims were good; and we were unwilling to injure its prospects of financial success. But now that it is over— when even the laab efcretch of sceuic canvass and the last collection of " properties" have been auctioned—we are able without unfairness to speak our miuds on the 'question of bazaars generally in the hope that the Churches in future may tee their way to raising their funds by better means. The Carnival in the Tuam street Hall—to take it as an example—was simply an ecclesiastical gambling hell. Wβ have not seen the balance-sheet, but we believe the amount " put through the machine , ' would compare favourably with the operation of the totalisator

at a good many race meetings. The machine in this case was a lotto-box and the game pure-hazard. Of the large display of goods in the stalls we tire probably within the mark ia saying that considerably more than half were raffled- —not sold. The visitor, from the moment he entered the door, was beset by a bevy of prettily-dressed maidens who pestered him for shillings for raffles. Young men were tempted, not merely as on a racecourse or at the card table, by the passion for hazard which is inherent in most of us, bat the vice had all the added allurements feminine wiles could give.it to make it attractive. In a great many cases indeed the insistence or these young ladies went altogether beyond the bouuda of good taste. Nothing short of rudeness would make them abandon their importunities, and sometimes even that failed. In private life they are doubtless as coy and modest as they are comely • at the bazaar in the interests of the Church they became bold to the verge of impudence. To our minds to allow young women to employ their natural charms and graces to extort money — however priestblessed the extortion—is apt to dull the fine edge of maidenly diffidence. What; wonder -if many young men— and young women too for that matter —plunged at the Carnival with a reckless disregard of their means to afford it? Who ehall say that come" of them having once the spirit? of hazard: aroused, would cot, when) the bazaar was past, indulge the craving in other forma of gaming ? Andrthere ia no intellectual or physical skill' called into play as in a rubber of whijsfe or a gamt at biUiardi to keep

the gambling instinct in the background ; raffling is pure unadulterated gambling, as much as chicken hazard or yankea grab. INo end ia view, however- noble or disinterested, could justify such methods, and xiq are astonished thai the authorities should hare sanctioned such a flagrant breach of the Gaming and Lotteries Act. We do not want to be understood to condemn bazaars. The Churches in New Zealand are voluntary organisations, obliged to raise their incomes without the help of tax or tithe; they must; often find the task extremely difficult. And there can be no better way than through bazaars or sales of work, or whatever name they be called by. These allow even the poorest members of a congregation to contribute their little to the general effort, for if they cannot find money or material they can find time and labour. But let such functions be strictly sales; to allow them to degenerate into gambling saloons is to stultify all the efforts of the Churches at .wcial reform. The objection against bazaars, that they are an nufair tax upon tradespeople who are pestered for donations, does not need to be urged here; mo3fc Christchurch tradesmen have by their " bazaar covenant" adequately protected themselves. But the countenauce many Church bazaars give to reckless gambling and speculation we emphatically condemn. Let it be promptly discontinued, or if it is to continue, let us at least hear no more sermons on the gambling evil from the clergy who connive at it, for people who live in glass houses are proverbially warned againafc catapults.