GAMBLING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 24, 23 October 1907, Page 4

GAMBLING IN NEW ZEALAND.

' ■ an;englis'h:bpinion. •„■,.;. It is always interesting. -to. know'what is thought of us:by.English observers,:-and this is our reason for reprinting.the following edi-. torial fromi:the ''Manchester Guardian" of September 10 Jast. ;• -.-■,: - ■ . '"rho'Premier of Now' Zealand," says the "Gliarriinu," is contemplating how anti-bet-ting legislation. ■ Be has no hope of boing ablo to'abolish tho tbtiilisator, but he thinks he can got Parliament to confine betting to tho courso, prohibit , the dissemination by telegraph of racing news, and suppress doubleeyent betting. There is very little doubt'that, however tho totalisator may add to the amenities of. racing, it encourages, rather. than discourages, betting.; The mere fact that it ;puts -welshirig? out:of.the-question is all in.ducom6nt:tothe small 'speculator- to gamble. Indeed, its great vice is its. respectability, its respectable relations with .charity and. the. State ript pxchded.'.; Porhaps that holps to 'oxplhin tho' impossibility -of abolishing it in. New Zealand. In France, the totalisator has a turnover 1 of ton; millions. , a' year, of which the state appropriate's 7 ! per cent.; if the busi.ness dono in jjJew .Zealand-"bears comparison with this,",H roust bo .a pretty considerable Tested interest.' ( ' 'No- : doubt'thero are other difficulties;.bett|rig''.seems to ,,, have got even, more' iiit'o. tho blood of Englishcolonists r than. iiitq the blood of Englishmen themselves, and tHo r 'prbcess''6f J eradicating tho vicq will 'be. ,16'iig arid'difficult.. ,^Legislation can hardly.,do more'than tackle the machinery of betting ;..tho,'moral problem, sayo'in so far as its miichino'ry "is rendered easier by putting difficulties in the way of betting, niust be dealt with by other agents,. New Zealand is evidently not ripe for'the banning ■of .betting everywhere and ,in all forms j that .being so, its, confinement .to the courso may do some good; though.a good deal less : ih' ,r a': oounry. likonNew, : Zealand,/ where everybody goes to- races,, than- in ; England. The denial of the telegraph for the circulation ofv botting'nows'is likewiso of -some utility, though l difficult 1 to-excciito; still; more useful would bo 1 tho ! direct. prohibition of-its ■ publics-: tioft. - But presumably such a step would be 'in 'Sdvanco of public opinion. ! One is always hrought backVtp , that supreme' difficulty of legislatingagainstgambling; thatthough the 'cv'l'-is manifest":to' allj tho_ will, to , stamp it out. resides only ilia minority, which is itself ! freo'from, the tninti" ...' ; '" ' ,' ;