A PREPOSTEROUS STATEMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 66, 15 September 1906, Page 9

A PREPOSTEROUS STATEMENT.

TO TI.K BUITOR. Sir, — If preposterous statements will tend to suppress gambling, then the secohd-hnnd declaration made by the Premier to the anti-gambling deputation should strike terror into those who in- j vest their 5s in tickets ir) Tatteisall's j sweeps. Sir Joseph Ward gave it out that two millions ono hundred thousand pounds annually left Wellington for gambling purposes ; if \ro add similar sums lor Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, the total would reach eight millions fpur hundred thousand ; then any one Australian State should be as speculative as this colony, consequently the contributions of the five States added to New Zealand would mako a grand ' total of fifty million • pounds , whilst tho plain fact remains that the promoters 'of Tattersall'a sweeps only handlo some threo hundred thousand pounds annually. So far then as Wellington is concerned in TattersalPs sweeps, the Premiers statement is only two millions eighty-seven thousand and five hundred pounds wide of the mark I It is obvious that with the exception of a few hundred pounds 'occasionally sent to Australia for inve«tment on New Zealand horses, no money other than to Tattersall's leaves Wellington. Local investors on New Zealand racing events find scores '6f Wellington bookmakers prepared to accept their investments ; and as thousands of pounds are sent to the Wellington bookmakers by country clients, it is reasonable to assume that more money is sent to Wellington than is *Dnt out of it for gambling purposes on New Zealand racing. Assuming that New Zealand invested fifty thousand pounds in Tnttersall's .sweeps, tho investor's should, and probnbly do, receive their inir share of I prizes, tho promoters of the sweeps only retaining 10 per cent. The total loss to Now_ Zealand would thus be £5000 per ; this, if divided amongst the "four larcfo centres, makes Wellington's Joss £1250. Compare this with thu statement mado by the Premier on some ono else's authority, and the preposterousness of the allegation will at once be obvious. — I am, etc., VERITAS. Wellington, i2th Soptember.

"You know," remarked a cyclist to his friend, "motorists consider thoro are only two classes of peoplo on tho earth besides ' themselves — thoso who can get out of tho way of thoir cars in time and those who can't. "Ah, I see," murmured tho latter thoughtfully — "tho ..Auick and tha rlaari.'-'-