SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8121, 18 March 1887, Page 6

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[By Telegrami.] [from otjb own correspondents.] . AUCKLAND, March 17. I The Rev G. B. Monro, Modera or of the 1 General Assembly, in the course of a sermon on “ gambling,” on Sunday evening .last, said there was a time when h‘. could not see any evil in raffles and b izaars, the end in view being.the liquida'bn f church debt; but since he had studied the subject more carefully, he had come to see that the principle of lotteries and bazaars was the same as that manifested on the racecourse ; that if they were to be in a poaisitiqn to protest against and condemn the evils of gambling, they must keep their hands leleah in the matter. The argument that persons received an equivalent in church lotteries was a mere quibble, for the same spirit of speculation was developed as when people staked their money on the totalisator. In the interests, then, of the rising generation, the interests of commercial and social purity, and in the interests of common Christianity, let them personally and collectively do what they could to suppress gambling. Let them speak out plainly against it. Let them demand the suppression of the totalisator. Let them by example and precept warn the young against a practice that was destructive to public morals and highly detrimental to the spiritual interests of those who gave way to it. The history of gambling hells in Europe, such as Monte Carlo, sufficiently proved the justice of bis comments.

WANGANUI. March 17. At the meeting .of the Charitable Board yesterday, the subject under discussion was the advisabilityotherwise of making a levy. Hitherto the plan adopted in the district has been to allow each body to estimate for itself the amount likely to be wanted for Charitable Aid during the year, and this being paid into the Board’s account they received it with the Government subsidy. By this plan large counties escaped very lightly, while the towns, especially Wanganui, had to pay an unduly large amount. The Borough Council here declined to continue the voluntary system, and as the Board’s solicitor advised the Board that they could not insist on the payment of voluntary contributions, there was no other means for them bnt to make a levy. All the country members were much.against this, but having no option, they had to agree to it. During the debate, one member remarked that probably during the next session the Act might be amended to allow of one or other portions being rated, without rating all; but Mr Mocarthur, M.H.R., said there was no chance of that while the present Government were in office, as their policy all through hid been to cast Charitable Aid on town and country together. As an instance of the effect to-day’s resolution will have, I may quote figures for two Counties adjacent to the Borough. Last year "the Wanganui, and Waitara Countiee each voted JBS for charitable aid, and it is questionable if they expended even that. • This year they have to find £7l and £GS respectively, while the Borough, which last year paid iIISO, gets off this year with £77 10s. It has been contended all along that it was not fair that the town should hare to. pay so heavily, while adjacent districts, equally interested, get off scot free, and yesterday's motion aete{ the matter right.

DUNEDIN. March 17.

The Benevolent Trustees intend to test whether the Institution can bo legally burdened with the cost of pauper burials. The Chairman, gave an unqualified denial to the statement of Mr Begg, that a woman whose father owned a thousand acres of the finest land in Otago was receiving aid. Mr Fergus’ address at Queenstown was a philippic against the Hon E. Richardson’s administration of the Works Department. He said Messrs Ba!lance and Richardson had rendered the settlement of the King Country more remote than ever. He prophesied a bitter struggle over the Representation Bill, and suggested the division of the Colony into six electorates, returning members under some modification of Hart’s system. He was favourable to a reduction of the nnmber of members to eighty. The jury found that M'Nickla’s premises at Lawrence were intentionally fired by some person unknown. They added a rider saying that so long as property was over-insured, as it was in this case, these fires most necessarily occur.