The Press FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1949. Gaming Amendment

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25934, 14 October 1949, Page 6

The Press FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1949. Gaming Amendment

The main provision in the Gaming Amendment Bill introduced in Parliament on Tuesday legalises offcourse betting through the totalisator. The provision has the authority of a referendum taken seven months ago. But the referendum decision passed responsibilities to Government and Parliament; it did not absolve them. The referendum favoured an off-course betting system outlined by the Racing and Trotting Conferences and reported upon favourably by the Royal Commission on Gaming and Racing. The working machinery of the system, however, has not yet been opened to detailed examination; and none can doubt that this should be done before the authority of Parliament is asked or given to something which alters fundamentals of social life in New Zealand, and legalises what formerly was illegal. The amendment goes no further than to set up a board, consisting of members appointed by the Racing and Trotting Conferences, the full powers of which have yet to be defined. It is left to the Racing and Trotting Conferences to submit

to the Minister of Internal Affairs for his approval “ a scheme for the “ establishment and operation by “the board of totalisator agencies in “ respect of race meetings The intentions and motives of the Racing and Trotting Conferences are not in question. But their representative functions are confined to the racing and trotting clubs; they do not represent the public. The Government has presented a mere skeleton to Parliament, and has' asked it to take the flesh and the ■ clothing for granted. The Government has reversed the ■ logical order for the introduction of an off-course betting system. The' machinery should first have been prepared by the Racing k and Trotting Conferences, placed before the Government for examination, and then submitted to Parliament in a comprehensive bill. Parliament should be able to see the scheme in detail and to see it whole. The Government's reluctance to go to the country without having done something about the gaming referendum is understandable, whether or not it carries a share of the blame for the failure to implement the referendum decision in its term of office. But this is worse than doing nothing at all. When the Prime Minister remarked, concerning financial provisions for the Totalisator Agency Board, that “it “ was all unknown territory", he invited general application to his phrase. The Gaming Amendment Bill invites Parliament and people to go into unknown territory—blindly.