BISHOP ON GAMBLING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21852, 24 October 1945, Page 8

BISHOP ON GAMBLING

EFFECTS IN AUSTRALIA SIGN OF DISINTEGRATION SYDNEY, Oct. 9. Bishop Burgmann, of Goulburn, whose recent utterances have drawn much attention, has condemned the Australian’s weakness for gambling in his monthly letter to the Goulburn diocesan magazine. “Gambling,” said the bishop, “is the enemy of all stable and orderly business and is probably Australia’s greatest business. If the process continues, the burden will be beyond the powers of the nation to bear. The workers will not be sufficient to carry the gamblers.” The letter added: “The speed of gambling is one of the most obvious symptoms that a society is falling to pieces. There was a time when the adults engaged in gambling, but made some attempt to keep their children clear of it. Nowadays children are frequently encouraged to gamble. There is little sense of revulsion left in the community at the practice of juvenile gambling. The best people do if openly in the streets —so why should children restrain?" “Enemy of Honest Work” Bishop Burgmann contended that beneath the unity imposed by war there were signs of growing disintegration. These were the tolerant view taken of black marketing, the growing disrespect for law, the steady rise in delinquency, especially among young people, an enormous increase in gambling. "The gambler may want law to prevail generally, but when he gambles he appeals to chancfc, which is the opposite and enemy of law,” the bishop continued. “He seeks property free from such other person for which he expressly does not wish to pay. Gambling thus becomes the enemy of honest work. “Why work if you can win the lottery? Working becomes equated with folly. The attitude grows that only a fool works if he can win enough to live without it. The smart person organises the gambling of his mates and lives on their wages. He increases in importance as he becomes a greater and greater parasite upon his fellows. As gambling increases, the respect for law decreases. This process is going on before our eyes. This way lies complete anarchy.” Bishop Burgmann claimed that gambling “kills the fun of life and hastens the dry mind, the wrinkled skin and the haggardness of old age.” He considered that its use in the collecting of patriotic funds was a symptom of “national decay.” What was needed was a truly scientific and just ordering of the economic life of the world. This could not be done unless chance was regarded as evil, to be eliminated.