BETTING OFF THE COURSE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27444, 2 September 1954, Page 6

BETTING OFF THE COURSE

Periodical Review Of Question Urged

Off-course betting and compulsory military training were discussed by the North Canterbury Methodist District Synod in Christchurch yesterday. “There is a danger of a generation growing up that will accept these things as normal. The rights and wrongs of the case should be kept before the mind of the public,” said the Rev. B. J. Hilder. Mr Hilder moved a recommendation from the Oxford circuit that “the synod should recommend to the New Zealand Conference that an appeal be made to the Government requesting that the issue of off-course betting be filaced on the same footing as liquor icensing—that is, subject to periodical review at the polls.” “We have no power to prevent a betting agency being established,” Mr Hilder said. “If it is not good enough to have an agency near a school or a church, is it good enough to have it at all? We are asking that it be subject to a vote of the people from time to time.” The recommendation was carried. The public questions committee should examine whether compulsory military training should be subject to periodical review at the polls, said Dr. W. G. Slade. Notice to consider the recommendation had been too short, he said. _

An*amendment, moved by Dr. Slade, and suggesting an examination of the question by the committee, will be considered by the synod today.