The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1912.

Evening Star, Issue 14964, 26 August 1912, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1912.

A bather curious circumstance may be noted iu connection The Close Of with the nino days' the Debate, debate on the Budget.

While no less than 47 members contributed to the wisdom embalmed or endustod in the pages of 'Hansard,' the Minister of Finance and his two predecessors were among the silent minority. Of course, it may be said that the Budget itself was Mr Allen's share of the discussion, and it might be a mistake to regard the reticence of Sir .Joseph "Ward and Mr Myers as specially significant. The debate as a whole lacked the interest which might have been expected to characterise it, in view of the novelty of the parliamentary situation. The Opposition, virtually leaderless and more or less at cross purposes, did not show to advantage, Mr G. W. Russell having set a very undesirable example in his opening harangue; but they cannot he blamed for prolonging the proceedings, as many of the lesser lights of the Ministerialist party were in talkative humor. Mediocrity was the prevailing quality, though perhaps an exception should be allowed in favor of Mr Massey's concluding speech. The Prime Minister is in some danger of being over-praised just now, and it must bo borne in mind that there had been no criticism calculated to tax his defensive powers: still, the speech was undoubtedly a telling one. It is not surprising that the new political circumstances have served to increase Mr Massey's attractiveness as a speaker, at least for the time being. Lack of variety was his weak point as Leader of the Opposition: his parliamentary and platform deliverances became stale by continual repetition. Xow, however, he has something fresh to talk about, and a positive policy to expound and defend ; and his spirits have naturally been uplifted by the attainment of appreciable success. Perhaps he was a shade too pugnacious on Friday night. He was not quite just to Mr Forbes, the member for Hurunui; and the ■'inebriated windmill" simile, in allusion to Mr Isitt's rhetorical mannerisms, was rather beneath the dignity of his .position. Again, it is satisfactory to know that the industrial classes have the promise of ''a square deal "' from the present Government, but when Mr Massoy declares that ''they have never had a square deal,'' with a disparaging implication as regards the Liberal Governments, he is obviously unfair. The workers had small reason to thank the Masseyite Oppositionists, and they will be exceptionally fortunate if the benefits they obtain from the Massoy Government prove more substantial than those they secured when Mr Seddon and Sir' Joseph Ward were in power. The Prime Minister, who sometimes shows a penchant for paradox, is pleased to refer to the people who deprecate further alienation of the State lands as "a few fossilised individuals"; and he told an interjector that it Parliament refused to concede freehold rights to holders of renewable leases the Governor would be asked to grant a dissolution. This threat (for which Mr Massey seems to have offered a sort of apology) was anything but timely. Our own belief is that if that particular issue could be submitted to the country by special referendum, dissociated from other political considerations, a majority of the electors would insist on holding the tenants under the renewable leas<» strictly to their bargain. That is not to say that the Government would be defeated if they went to the country at the present time with their entire policy—and herein, consists one of the chief mischiefs of our political system, which, to all practical intents, debars the electors from vetoing a single important proposal unless they are prepared to eject tho authors of that proposal from office.

Ox Thursday £h* member for Waipawa (Mr George Hunter) will Has the move the second veadCambllng Evil ing of his Gaming Act Crown? Amendment Biil, the professed object of which is to uiklo the work of the Gaming Commission of 1911. It is alleged "that heads have been carefully counted, and that there is a declared majority in favor of remedial legislation, in order to give " justice" to the email country racing clubs. And as information to this effect reaches us from a generally trustworthy source, we think it- is high time for the I organisations which in 1909 made their : influence felt in the lar-f Parliament, and were largely responsible for the reduction in tht number of raciiuj day*, to be up and doing, for the force.? that are leagued to increase the facilities for racing are alert, have the command of considerable means, and arc in a position to bring pressure to bear on weak-kneed politicians. For our part, being fully persuaded there has been far too much racing in the Dominion, we have consistently supported the racing men who have honestly endeavored to check the tendency towards increasing the facilities for gambling ; and we warn the present agitators that it they persist in the line of action that they are now adopting we shall have to consider our position towai<l« the totalisator. We have hitherto favored the retention of the machine as being the fairest 'method of I wagering, though we have been, and etill continue to be. ih.o opponents of the State deriving any benefit whatever from the operations of the "tote.'' In our opinion, the percentage levied on investors should be equally divided between the racing clubs (for the proper maintenance of courses and equipment thereof, and for augmenting stakes) and the agricultural and pastoral associations for the especial improvement of the strains of blood stock, after the manner of the. vote annually given to the Development Commission in England for a like purpose. The will of the people was so clearly expressed in the last Parliament in two directions—the limitation of the racing' days to 250 in each year, and the exclus;on of bookmakers from all racecourses—that we hesitate (o believe that the present 'Parliament will, in the absence of any mandate to the contrary from the constituencies, take upon itself the grave responsibility of eithe.' adding to the existing opportunities for gambling, which in all orriousiifss are ample for a million of people, or of again making legally reputable the occupation of bookmaker, which a former Attorney-General, from his place in Parliament, solemnly declared would be as extinct relatively as the moa when the legislation of 1910, which he 'had a large hand in flaming, was put upon the Statute Book! What are the facts? The genus bookmaker, despite spasmodic and half-hearted attempts by the police to suppress him. bulks as iaigely as ever in the public eye ; though he toils not nor spins, he waxes exceedingly fat ; and the operations of the machine at I'icearton and Addington during Grand National Week, when the huge sum of £176,000 was put through the "tote"' in eix raring day*, furnish a conclusive answer to those optimistic souls who expected the volume of betting transactions to be lessened so long as eight races are decided on every day that the machine is in use! We repeat that neither in England nor in Australia is so much racing per diem allowed as in New Zealand, and we have never been able lo understand why the excessive number of daily events in this Dominion should be tolerated.

As the avowed purposes of the legislation of 1910—to reduce the number of racing days and to minimise the gambling evil—has proved a complete failure in both directions, it will surely be an egregious and a stupendous blunder to widen the door through which so much money is u iih-irawn from the legitimate channels of trade and commerce. When the Gaming Bill was Inst before Parliament we sympathised with the effort which the member for Chalmers made to give the benefits of the "tote" to the small country meetings, fearing that increasing the number of days accorded to the wealthy metropolitan, clubs would be productive of infinite mischief. Our anticipations have been verified. If the Minister of the Interior had stayed his hand •until the House had reviewed the present position it would have been much better than temporising in a. way that has raised the suspicion in some minds that the taking away of a single day from the C.J.C. and another from the Marten Club and giving those two days to the Haiigitikei Club was dictated solelv by political exigencies. A bolder and more statesmanlike course would have been to have curtailed the present advantages of all the metropolitan clubs, and to have distributed among the country clubs (apart from alleged proprietary courses) the permits so gained, the task of distribution to be performed by the Minister in conjunction with the Racing- Conference. But the fat is now in the fire, and it is to be feared that the debate on Mr Hunter's Bill will indicate a very marked cleavage between the sympathisers with powerful racing stables and the principal breeders, who latt season had matters pretty well their OTYii way. as the statistics of " Pendragon"' in the 'Weekly Press' abundantly e how, and the parliamentarians whose seats are not beyond the influence at the polls of those responsible for the control of what are euphemistically termed "country clubs." The safest way out of the present impasse is to retain the existing restriction of 250 racing days in one season for the entire Dominion ; to deprive the metropolitan clubs of from 10 to 12 days ; to limit a day's programme to seven events: and to enact that no individual club shall race on more than nine days in any one year. We are aware that our proposals are distasteful to many who call themselves sportsmen, but they are dictated by a desire to avoid a danger that some of the clubs refuse to recognise. That portion of the public: which is known as the "silent voter" has very pronounced views as, to the magnitude of the gambling evil and the inefficacy of the measures taken to cope- with it. If the plea for reasonable compromise is not heeded the time may not be far off when there will be an irresistible demand to extirpate the source of the canker on the body politic.