OPPOSITION TO GAMBLING

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27501, 8 November 1954, Page 10

OPPOSITION TO GAMBLING

BAPTIST UNION’S DECISIONS

REVIEW OF T.AJL SYSTEM ADVOCATED

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 7. The assembly of the New Zealand Baptist Union is to call on the Government to resist firmly all pressure for the extension of facilities for organised gambling, and to review “the operations and effects of the Totalisator Agency Board.” Resolutions along these lines were passed unanimously by the assembly at the Auckland Tabernacle on Saturday. A third resolution called on all responsible citizens, and particularly parents, to “set their faces firmly against betting, lotteries, raffles, and all ° ther forms of gambling.” The assembly passed also a further resolution which said that delegates believed that gambling was an evil thing, in that it was contrary to God’s law. Gambling was an inducement to 381 4 ® ncoura Bed dishonesty; it was rooted in covetousness; and it was productive of social unhappiness, tion and sufferin ®’ said the resolu-

i There were several reasons why the Government should be asked to review the operations of the Totalisator «?S ncy ',B? ard ; said Mr s - L - Paterson, b.M., of Hamilton, who introduced all the motions. When the referendum had been “J™ 1 onginally, many people took it ere i y otin B either for or bookmaking 4 Were VOting against “These people," he said, “did not imagine that Saturday oscillation we !k aVe n. A°l ay^,between the h °tels and the TA R he L d i d £ Ot ihiagine that i.A.B. would be brought into the homes’”’ virtually into their own teries Paterson a l so condemned lot-