RESTRICTION OF GAMBLING

Evening Star, Issue 10747, 6 October 1898, Page 1

RESTRICTION OF GAMBLING

The Hon. W. C. Walker, in moving the second reading of the Gaming and Lotteries Act Amendment Bill in the Legislative Council, evyiently labored under a .sense of considerable embarrassment, as representing a Ministry which persistently declines to recognise the responsibility of the State for the gaming in the most aggravated form which, under special statutory authority, is prevalent throughout the Colony. It is nothing less than absolute hypocrisy to propose legislation for the restriction or suppression of gambling whilst the totalisator, a purely gaming instrument, continues to be legalised. He was not prepared, the honorable gentleman said, to advocate, so far as the general question was concerned, even the morality of the State in the matter, " because we have as a colony, as it "were, condoned the evils of gambling "by legalising the totalisator. But " still we have the excuse that we " have only done that as the lesser "and less noxious form of gambling, if "it is to go on at all,'' This is a very lame excuse at the best; and no doubt Mr Walker, as Minister of Education, felt himself in a false position in advocating a measure ostensibly of social reform, which " takes tithe of the mint and " cummin, but neglects the weightier " matters of the law," and allows the continuance of a system which experience has proved to be especially demoralising to the youth of the Colony. There is no doubt, the Minister said, that the betting in the road, or at the corner of the street, or at the gambling houses, was most destructive to public morality ; and the object of the Bill, therefore, was to extend in a certain direction the law at present existing in regard to these forms of gambling by giving the police further powers. For instance, clause 2 gave the police power to take up persons found loitering about the street corners for the purpose of betting ; and clause 4 gave power to the police to seize letters, circulars, and other documents and papers when they make a raid on a jgambling house. Under clause 5 it was provided that the owner of a house shall be supposed to have some knowledge of the object for which it is being used, if the police have warned and cautioned him before as to the unlawful uses to which his tenants arc putting the premises. Clause G extended to offenders under the Bill the provisions of the Evidence Further Amendment Act, 1895, which enables certain persons to give evidence under the protection of the Court. In these cases they were at present able to plead that if they give evidence thej r would incriminate themselves, but under this provision of the Bill the Court would be enabled to give Mich witnesses protection in case their evidence should tend to incriminate themselves. The Minister did not specifically refer to clause '•), which gives any police constable authority to arrest offenders without a warrant, and has been struck out in committee as unduly interfering with the liberty of the subject. An animated discussion took place in the Council on the motion for the second reading, which was eventually carried without a division. The Hon. Mr A. L. Smith, who is fast proving himself an acquisition to the Legislature, made an able, common-sense speech, in which he opened his mind very clearly as to the inconsistency of the Government in proposing legislation of this character. The Bill, he said, might do something towards the repression of the present evil of gambling, but he should like to have seen the matter dealt with in a large, comprehensive measure, because the evil had assumed very gigantic proportions. In his view, he declared, the totalisator had done more to develop indiscriminate and senseless gambling than anything he knew of. It has induced, he went on to say, a lot of young fellows to put their money on these machines and to back horses which they probably knew nothing at all about, but with regard to which they did not even know the odds they were going to get, and therefore they made themselves unknowingly the prey of those who know something and watched the machine and put their money at the last moment on some good thing kept dark for the purpose. He should support the Bill, but he felt sure that the conscience of the community would in a short time compel the Government to do something to repress the great evil of gambling amongst the young. The Bill went but a very small distance in the direction required, and he did not think it would do anything like the good some honorable members appeared to expect of it. In winding up the debate and replying generally to the criticisms of honorable members on the Bill, the Minister, as representing the Government, rather gave himself away in regard to the principle involved. He considered, he said, that a great responsibility had been incurred in legalising the totaiisator. The only advantage was that, as affirmed by the Hon. Geori.e M'Lean, it had put racing on a sound financial footing, and that there was no necessity now to drag money from the pockets of the few for the pleasures of the many ; but at the same time it must be admitted that the totalisator had done a great deal to familiarise and generalise gambling amongst all classes of the community. "That is a very heavy responsibility " that the totalisator brings with " it. I say the State is responsible for " this, and should do all it can to mini- " raise the evils that it has encouraged by " the statutory legalisation of the totali- " sator." It did not seem to suggest itself to the honorable gentleman that the remedy was simple, and that instead of endeavoring to " minimise the evils, 1 the statesmanlike course would be to strike at the root and withdraw the statutory authorisation of a gaming machine the legalisation of which is a scandal to the Colony. *