GAMBLING FIGURES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18100, 16 June 1924, Page 11

GAMBLING FIGURES.

lawrW >on "the press." yan old custom for a lawrhia client and fool a jury, "brief fails, by tearing a atters -tfvor the frills - and thei'bther side. It makes .£j- but it very seldom deity. Editors seem'to liave csior, the same deplorable 1 fsession of Parliament-im-'. Bill has- been lyvfthe Prime Minister. It contain a proposal for in-. eiWdays in l this over-raced Cfe is. known,, in addition, fts are asking for a doubles, indfoi* the rights to have •fphed.on to the machine— Jie. daily bet possible. It nrthat the: newspapers are a; to install:tipsters and lends. Responsible people each of. thesO proposals i.tho gambling bill. v dl, has asked business men : ;he gravity of Buch legislay:in view of general ecoions. In one of the circuWere quoted : incidentally." ad.e great play.,.with thesa f ;Hf F. Niccol, of Ahsburin .v foremost, • and almost oyer;, their alleged. inaccur'say, .incidentally,; that Mr &- last man to indulge in sta. In .his letters he has . racecourse gambling as the rt. The Government Statis•es that Rugby, is the na- •■■■ And the authorities in ;Own-town sent a man .to r tjhree years for betting the national game. .. If nen '-'on the ball" is not 'ed in the national. sport, ionder what its rights arc it "on tho horse." Whon i thinking about • his. own fri.s a poor third on tho list, he might work out an. liis little conundrum; r.these figures,; which have livert the jury from the fore the country, I indi(icy were based on calculah •ivc appeared not infrc--3C fl .l jtcpers, and that thoy 3 in the year book, of t>.at |h 'he jockey clubs' and '■ Great Britain have form<ect their "interests.. The he '' Clironicle" of April iat' the year book ' of the Society, 7 "Vigo street, 1, was published on April -a-guinea, that it is. edited tary of the society, named i- quotes half a dozen of. I'v.i'- 1 inverted: commas. 6' I referred to ruus:— about 200' Tacing days i» jd .therefore with .250,000 ing an average sum. of ?s fie total vo'.uroe of-street |d be £ 6,000,000 per anese figures may be right They are immaterial to vhe if you or Mr. Nicoll want font them, quarrel with the ion Society, and not with ; unnaturally supposed that

I such a society would,know,-its own business. ... •■-. ■ .'J'ke'recent Totalisator ' found that there ought not to be more betting than there is in the country. Mr Massiy has publicly declared that an investment of £2,000,000 a year was too much (that was in 1907). *We aro. at the £5,000,000 mark, and t;iis new legislation will open., the iloodgstcs for still more. And-you have nothing but invective and innuendo for the Council in its attempt to stave off so great a calamity. Jf. you are successful, if these things, become law, you will no doubt, as thc'g'iddy figures mount, repeat your platitude that .'•'.there..is- ..n0 economic case against gambling."' • But. .possibly.. by then you and the country--will .'have forgotten what the Professors of the University of New Zealand unanimously said about it. Something more grim than 'academic statement will. be in evidence.—Yours, ctev. ■'" '.": - »•■ ... J. J.XORTrT, General. Secretary [We refer to this letter in our leader column*^lll*. ■ ' Ths JPjms. "I '■