GAMING BILL.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19153, 9 November 1927, Page 10

GAMING BILL.

SECOND READING CARRIED SHELVED FOR SESSION ? [THE PBESS Speciil Serries.] WELLINGTON, November S. Tiie Gaming Bill, the second reading debate on which was going on when the Telegraph Office closed vesterday morning, was read n .sei-ond time, but it was not pressed further, and it is the general opinion of members that no further attempt to pass the Bill into law will be made this session.

The first speaker after the Telegraph Office closed was Mr Jordan, who was developing the argument that the Bill would increase gambling when sudden]v the lights went out, and the Chamber was plunged in darkness. Matches and candles were brought into requisition, and in a state of semi-darkness Mr Jordan proceeded to comment on the proportion of totalisator investments taken by racing clubs, when Mr Lee (Auckland Fast) drew attention to "the state of the House." Mr Speaker said it was impossible to sav whether or not there was a quorum present, and he proposed to adiourn the House till the ringing of the bell.

This was done, and for 15 minutes business was suspended. At the end of that time the lights came on again, and Mr Jordan continued, being frequently interrupted by applications to Mr Speaker to test "the state of the House. - '

Mr Howard maintained that the totalisator had clothed gambling in a garment of respectability, with the result that young people breasted up to the machine, and put their 10s or £1 on without any sense of shame. And this feeling of boldness was created at their most impressionable age. Mr Lee (Auckland East) said he was not against the totalisator on the racecourse, but he was against the association of the Telegraph Office with betting. He was also against the double totalisator. and for these reasons he would oppose the Bill. The final rote on the second reading was 20 in favour and 14 against. The division list and pairs were as follows:

Ayes (20). Atmore Mason, J. Bell Nosworthv Coates Poniare Dickson, .T. S. Rhodes Eliott Kolleston, J. C. Field Seddon Glenn Sykes Hawken Tapley Hockly Williams, Hunter Young Noes (14). Armstrong Martin Bartram Mason, H. G. R Fraser Parry Henare Potter Howard Rolleston, F. J. Jordan Savage Lee, J. A. Ward Pairs.

For the Bill: McLeod, Eeid, Hudson, Smith, Macmillan, Walter, Nash, Beliringer, E. P. Lee, Forbes, Wilford, Linklater, Campbell, Horn, Dickie, Anderson, J. R. Hamilton, Lysnar, W. Jones. Against the Bill: Wright, Bitchener, H. E. Holland, Stewart, Sullivan, Forsyth, McLennan, Uru, Luke, Sidey, Ngata, Burnett, D. Jones, Veitch, Ransom, H. Holland, J. McC. Dickson, McCombs, McKeen. As the night wore on, members tired of the debate, and an unusual number paired and went home to bed. There were often only twenty present—just sufficient to keep a quorum, and the Bill might have been taken into Committe, pending the reappearance of other supporters, who could have been roused from their slumbers, as has frequently been done on former occasions. That the Bill would have been successfully piloted through its Committee stage, even under these circumstances, was very doubtful, for the moment it got into Committee the opponents would have rallied, and there would have been so determined and lengthy a stonewall that there would have been little chance of the Bill becoming law during the time that could have been given to it at this late stage of the session.

We have now certainly seen the last of it for the present session.