NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 253, 20 July 1920, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The days of the bookmaker will be numbered if the new Gaming Bill gets on to the Statute Book and is enforced. The bookmaker only exists in defiance of the law because of two things: (1) tho law at present makes detection difficult; (2) the profits compensate for tho risks. Under the new Gaming Bili it is proposed to simplify Hie task of the police in securing conviction, and penalties (ire provided which should make tho business decidedly unprofitable. Moreover, there is another factor which will count mnterially in discouraging l this method of gambling: that is, the penalty provided for those convicted of doing business with the bookmaker. A fine of £'500 or imprisonment up to two years is a prospect that might we'd discourage the average bookmaker, while his clients, faced with- tho possibility of a fine of ,£IOO or one month's imprisonment, are likely to fall off very substantially in numbers even should there be bookmakers willing to take the Tisks. There can be no doubt that, however large an- amount has been put through the totai'.isalor at our race meetings, a great deal more lias been gambled away through the bookmakers. The reason of this is übvious. To speculate through the totalisator it is necessary to attend a race meeting or to entrust the money to a friend who is going there, but in practically every town and village in the Dominion thousands who cannot go to race meetings at a distance ran make their wagers through the local bookmakers. Tho temptation i 3 thus piaeticnlly thrust wider their noses, and is made worse by the bookmaker often giving' credit. OF lato there is said to have been some falling off in the business done with the bookmakers owing to tho new telephone and telegraphic restrictions. If the new Bill passes into law ami is actively enforced, this worst form of tho gambling evil will be practically stamped out.

It should be scarcely necessary in theso days to emigrate with Mr. llhodos Dishev to Snmon or tho Marquesas to lead the simple life. For most of us, with current prices for commodities, an endeavour to live within oneV income and put a little by for a rainy day represents as near an approximation to simple living as is desirable. It is true that witluM membership of some omnipotent trade union the two hours labour a day of tho Dishev programmo is Jiot yet in sight for most of us If the "light clothing" proposed implies the adoption of prevailing native modes in. tho South Seas, or something approaching them, the eimplo livers should at least he ablo 1.0 escape their tailors' and dressmakers' bills. Communities moro or less as Mr. Dishev plans have been founded in many parts of tho United States from tho days of the Shakers onwards. In nearly nil cases they have either discarded their peculiar views and returned to normal life, or else gradually or precipitately como to an end. The chief difficulty is that while each of tho cranks is unconscious of his own crankiness, tho oddities of tho several hundred other cranks 'become only too distressingly apparent with the lapse of time, and an overwhelming desiro develops for association with normal human beings, whoso souls, though perhaps 1c35 in tuno with tho infinite, aro more in accord with the needs of this work-a-<lay world,

Tho Wellington Chaml>er of Commerce is to be congratulated on the accession yesterday of orcr tifty new members. The chamber has at times done valuable work in tho interests of business men generally, but as too frequently happens with such bodies, tile tendency has been to leave all the 6pade work to a small handful of members, and to work the willing horse to death. Many members think the payment of their subscriptions and an occasional nppearance at a meeting a sufficient dischargo of their obligations. It is not by this lakewnrm cooperation that the commercial interests of tho city and port, will bo advanced. A subject with which the chamber is now engaged that affects all 'business men is the congestion on the wharves. This is due to lack of organisation, and if ever there was a profitable field for joint ■work in bringing alwut a better 6tato of things it is here. It may be hoped that the new members by their active participation in tho affairs of tho chamber will enable it still further to extend its work in advancing the commercial interests of the citr.

Mr. Theodore's efforts to induce the British investor to place a loan of three millions at the disposal of the Queensland Labour Government have evidently not been too successful. In a farewell speech, as reported yesterday, he has scolded the capitalists for "endeavouring to exercise control" over his Government by withholding their money. Mr. Theodore's Government in 1915 took over a railway .system which was showing a profit over interest and expenses, and now pays little more than its coal bill. This sort of thing naturally makes British investors think twice about putting more money down the same sink. Their belief in the Queensland Labour Government as a trustworthy borrower might also be expected to be shaken by the knowledge that the Queensland Labour Tarty at its recent conference at Townsville was busy with a proposal to make the party "part of the world-wide international movement for the overthrow of capitalism." Mr. Theodore regrets that "local political', fights should be carried into the city of , London." In other words, he thinks it most unfortunate that John Bull should know anything about the character of the people who want to borrow his money. # # * » State lotteries offer a needy Treasurer an easy means of raising money, but if tho New South Wales Labour Government seriously anticipates establishing them, as is reported, it will quickly find a hornets' nest about its ears. Of tho old sweepstakes in Australia that conducted by Tattereall's in Hobnrt is the only survivor, and though supported by the State Government as a profitable source of revenue it has .fought a long ami costly battle with, the Commonwealth Post Office, which' prohibits the transmission of gambling matter through the mails. Innumerable subterfuges have lieen Adopted to overcome (his obstacle, and apparently the New South Wales Government docs not regard it as insuperable. The love of gambling is deeply implanted in human nature, and many schemes have been put forward at different times to utilise it for the purpose of encouraging thrift: In Britain this year the premium bonds scheme, despite much- influential support and a favourable report by a Parliamentary committee, came to nothing. In this tho investors be given n lower rate of interest than that ordinarily paid, the difference being divided into substantial prizes and drawn for periodically by the investors. State lotteries still exist in many parts of Europe, or did until the war, but everywhere the tendency has been to discourage and prohibit them. In suggesting their establishment in Now South Wales the' State Government is , exhibiting more courage than discretion.