Licensing And Gaming Polls

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 February 1949, Page 2

Licensing And Gaming Polls

Sir.—ln view of the forthcoming poll on the licensing and. gambling issues, may I point out to your readers a few facts worth consideration. 1. It is a citizen’s duty to vote. 'Die Government asks the people of the country for an opinion, but unless we all vote the poll will be of little worth. If only 50 per cent, of the electors vote, no result can be conclusive proof of the wishes of the people. Considerable expense is incurred by the poll, and large matters hang in the balance: whatever a person’s opinion may be he has a duty to the Government to 3ay what he wants. . . , • 2. The wine, spirit and beer bill fof New Zealand is over £16,000,000 pef year. This means that the average family of four persons spends 15s per week on liquor. The gambling .bill for the country is over £50,000,000 (the totalisator- handles over £20,000,000, the bookies on their own statement handle over £24,000,000. and the "Tatts,” art unions, and countless raffles must bring the total to well over £50,000,000). This means £2 per week for every family of four. Certainly as an item of expense this last figure is somewhat reduced by winnings, but it remains a colossal burden on the national economy. We cannot afford a bigger burden. 3. If the present licensing and gambling laws were enforced there would be less drunkenness, less immorality which is associated with evening drinking, more money in the homes, and fewer men living unproductively bri their fellows. Gambling always tends io kill hard and honest work, and the community would be happier and better ;vith restricted gambling. 4. The present laws could be enforced. Of course there will always be an occasional offender, as there is the thief and murderer in spite of the country’s laws, but the present laws should' be put into operation. If one imagines that £24,000.000 were criminilly embezled each year by a group of swindlers, and compares the frenzied rnd concerted action of all authorities under those circumstances, with the comparative inactivity over the £24,000,000 illegally spent with the bookmakers, one realises that our country is not really trying to enforce its owh aws. 5. Increased facilities mean increased trade. If we have the hotel bars officially open in the evenings with brilliant dgnting effects and radios to attract the public, I fear there will be a further increase in all the evils associated with drinking. It has already been pointed out in articles in your paper by the Methodist and Presbyterian authorities that the off-course betting proposal is really not an alternative to the bookmaker, but an addition. If the authorities intend stamping out the bookmaker when there is legal oil-course betting, let them show their moral strength by doing so now! I believe it is the Christian’s duty to vote against later hotel hours, and against the rambling proposal.—Yours etc., (REV.) B. J. MACHELL, Reef ton, February 24.