DOING THEIR DUTY.

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 152, 30 June 1922, Page 7

DOING THEIR DUTY.

A member of Parliament plays many parts during his term of office—his difficulty is that he is supposed to represent all the people in his electorate, and to do his utmost to have their wishes fulfilled. Every member of Parliament, for instance, however much opposed to gambling he may be, is certain to have in his electorate large numbers of people .who see ho evil in betting, and of late these people have been very busy signing petitions praying the Government to amend the Gaming Act to provide for the licensing of bookmakers. In due course these petitions have been handed to the members for presentation to Parliament. Both on Wednesday and yesterday the House was amused at the spectacle of keen opponents of the system presenting these petitions supporting the cause of tho bookmaker. There was the case yesterday of the Minister of Justice, in his capacity as member for Oamaru, presenting a petition. He appreciated as much as anyone the humour of the situation; no doubt ho had in his mind the many occasions when he has stated emphatically that " the police are using the utmost vigilance in their efforts to suppress the bookmaker." Mr. L. M. Isitt (Christchurcli North) was the only member who was not prepared to hand in the petition without comment. He held the document at arm s length, and explained to Mr. Speaker ths.t of tho thousand-odd signatories- hundreds were those of people not in his electorate. He seemed to fear that the House might gain an unfortunate impression as to the nature of his constituents—but members did not seem to be worrying much about it.