REDUCTION URGED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22280, 15 March 1947, Page 6

REDUCTION URGED

GAMBLING IN N.Z. ATTITUDE OF CHURCHES ELIMINATION IMPOSSIBLE (P.A.) WELLINGTON. March 14. “We recognise that the state of public opinion is not such as to make the prohibition of organised gambling a practical possibility.” said the Rev. P. Gladstone Hughes, Presbyterian Minister, Wellington, in evidence before the Gaming Commission to-day. Subject to that limitation the churches believed that Parliament must legislate or. moral matters in the interests _of societv, he said, and such legislation should seek to prevent or punish breaches of the moral law ; and never to condone them or derive revenue from them. The churches he represented, therefore, advocated the maximum icstriction of organised gambling. Problem One of Education Mr. Justice Finlay: “The problem is one initially of education from the church? Mr. Hughes: Yes. The churches envisage the ultimate prohibition of organised gambling by the gradual elimination of inducements. His Honour: You do not recommend the prohibition of gambling now because prohibition would offend against the ethical standards of the community? Mr. Hughes: It would drive gambling underground.

The churches suggested, said the

witness, the strengthening of the law lor the suppression of illegal gambling, as well as the establishment of a special department of the police force to deal with it.

Other point? put forward were that there should be an immediate and continuing reduction in the number of tctalisator permits, as well as eliminating the profits of racing and trotting clubs from the totalisator. Assistance from State

To Mr. E. D. Blundell, for the Racing Conference, the witness said the churches, of which he represented seven, depended to a very large extent on assistance from the State to swing the pendulum of public opinion away from forms of organised gambling. Mr. C. S. Thomas, for the Trotting Conference: You recognise that the church must deal with circumstances as they are? Mr. Hughes: We have to tolerate them. Mr. Thomas: You realise that the commission may recommend that some form of off-course betting should be adopted? Mr. Hughes: Yes.