Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1890. EUROPEAN FISH AND CHINESE FOWL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVI, Issue 66, 21 March 1890, Page 2

Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1890. EUROPEAN FISH AND CHINESE FOWL.

4 The vagaries of the law are fearful and wonderful. The law in relation to gambling is certainly curious in its operation in these colonies. There is a gamo much affected by gamblers, known as " Hazards." There is a still more popular and common pastime known as " Yankee grab." Probably these have led to more embezzlements, suicides, and cases of starvation at home than any other pastime. There is also a game known in more limited circles as "fan-tan." This is the pastime of Chinamen, and so far as we know, it has never had the effect on Chinese communities in these colonies that the European games have had on European communities. Doubtless gam-: bling is the colonial vice of the future— probably a concomitant of labour-saving machinery — and it is well that the Legislature should put it down with something like a strong hand. But, are the administrators of the law clothed with any discretionary power as to its application ? We fancy not. It is the crowning glory of British law that.it should be applied without respect of persons, and applied, moreover, for the general good, not for the benefit of one section, or the punishment of another. Now, to prosecute the fan-tan players with such relentless severity, such persistency, seems a little unjust, to say the least of it. It is of the essence of Bumbledom. Mr Bumble, on a memorable occasion, boxed the ears of a boy who was doing nothing in particular. The law in New Zealand seems to be following in the footsteps of the revered Bumble. The microscopic character of its vision is quite astonishing, and no doubt the Celestial mind is duly impressed with that characteristic. We, however, who inherit the proud consciousness of being Britons, can hardly applaud these prosecutions. Not for worlds would we nave it supposed that we approve of fantan. If anybody says it is an invention of The Evil One, we wjII not argue the point with him. We are solicitous about the morals of our Chinese fellow-subjects. No doubt they are in a bad way, being wholly given up to opium and fan-tan, and market gardening. But as we groan over this sad condition of things, we cannot avoid growling over the manifest violation of the spirit of the law which these partial prosecutions involve. For one table devoted to fan-tan, there are fifty in every town, worn down by nightly gambling, in which young men participate and effectually ruin their lives l»y the diversion of their minds from honest industry. Society is not suffering from fan-tan or pak-a-poo, but from Yankee-grab and hazards, which are openly played in the four chief cities of the colony during the day and far into the night. It is within our owa knowledge that in Christchurch and Dunedin there are gambling "hells" at the back of respectable looking shops. What takes place in public houses we say nothing about ; there every thing goes on under the eye of a- responsible licensee, and that is some guarantee of order ; but in houses like these we refer to no such safeguard exists. Yet one never hears of a police raid in these quarters. Corruption is everywhere. If the police in London make a raid upon aristocratic gambling hells, they either warn some privileged persons before hand, or they leave a back door open for their escape. Let them get . hold of some defenceless poor devil and ! see how they " make it hot" for him ! We observe while writing this, that five celestials have been charged in Timaru with playing fan-tan. The enormity of the offence in this case is enhanced (we see by the. Herald's report) by the fact that " the cottage occupied by Ah Tong.is just behind the Assembly rooms and almost next door to the Primitive Methodist Church." This is of course very shocking, but it strikes us as a little unjust that the vice of gambling should be allowed to grow and overspread the European community " without let or hindrance." while five unfortunate market gardeners " outside the pale" should be pounced upon and have condign punishment meted out to them.