The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1891.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6263, 26 September 1891, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1891.

_ . —. __ During tho last month or two there ia reason to believe that ever; ono whose name is on the Hawke's Bay directory haa received a circular from Sydney requesting subscriptions to a "consultation," or sweep, on the Melbourne Cup. Hydney is tho head-centre for gambling of this disoription on horso-racing. Consultations and sweeps Lave been declared illegal in every other Australian colony, to the very gnat advantage, apparently, of New South Wales, the Parliament of that colony has now under its eon bid era i ion tho ness of pulling a total stop to gamblingand betting. The scheme for this moral reformation has not yet been formulated, j but the Government hay?'j, agreed to brmg

n a Bill next year to give effect to Mr Dangar's resolution, which was aa folows:—That in the opinion of thia House, ;he Government should introduoe a Bill to ieal with tho question of gambling generally, and the use made of the post-office by persona engaged in promoting sweeps and consultations in connection with horseracing." The discussion on thn question was interesting as showing the extent to which gambling ia carried on in the -iter colonies. One speaker said that many p.-rsons in Sydney got up sweeps who h .d no place of habitation, but they had boxes at the post office, by which theY did away with tho employment of clerks, and with the exp.n.-o of an established oiiiee. It appeared :hat no fewer than 357,317 registered letter.-* had bee'aaeut to these holders of boxes during this current year. In order to show how this form of speculation had grown, Mr Lamb stated that, in 1889, sweeps amounting to £289,000 were advertised; in 1890 the sweeps advertised were of th *) value of £431,500 ; and that for the portion of thia year already expired sweeps of the value of £670,000 had already been announced in the public papers. This enormous sum of money however, did not represent the total "amount invested in that way, as the small up-country sweeps aud consultations were not included iv the figures quoted. Outside of, and in addition to, the money risked iv this way, was, of course, that which was made in direct bets with bookmakers. The Postmaster-General, the Hon. D. O'Connor, drew a comparison between New South Wales and Victoria. In the last named colony consultations and sweeps were I illegal, but it proclaimed a holiday for the I holding of a carnival which in every way encouraged gambling. The Government of the colony of Victoria put up temporary buildings in the middle of the city of Melbourne, where tickets to go out to the racecourse were sold'to the and,, without charging the Victorian Jockey Club a penny tor those offices, paid it its proportion of the takings. It took £80,000 a year to enable that Jockey Club to carry on its bnsineßS. That Club had on its records over two hundred men from whom it received fees, and who were chartered to bet. There were one hundred and seventeen bookmakers registered for the saddling paddock, and ninety-eight for the hill. At the Postal Conference at which the Hon. Mr Ward, the New Zealand Postmaster-General was present, a resolution was carried as follows: " That in. the opinion of this Conference it is advisable that the system of dealing with letters' relating to sweeps should be uniform throughout Australasia." The Postmaster-General of New South Wales voted against what he termed transparent hypocrisy, especially as the gentleman who moved it represented a colony (Victoria) that in every way patronissd gambling—a colony that had entered into a partnership with those who throve and prospered by it. Mr O'Connor said if gambling was bad-—and he admitted that it was bad—let them have a law that would not only deal with the poor but also with the rich men. The debate was brought to a conclusion by Mr Dangar, who complimented the Government on the promise to draft a Bill

to deal with gambling in a general way. He hoped no Government would be enticed into the fatuity of attempting to put down betting altogether. If they made that attempt, no matter what the Bill was that was introduced, it would be a dead-letter. Betting and gambling, he said, were so inherent in human nature that it would be utterly impossible to put them down. It was utterly impossible to realise tbe hope that gambling in all its aspects would be entirely prevented.