DEBATE ON GAMBLING

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 226, 23 August 1929, Page 8

DEBATE ON GAMBLING

MR MARSH AND MR MAJOR. LARGE AUDIENCE ATTENDS. AUCKLAND, Aug. 22. A rro-decision debate on gambling between Rev. W. Lawson Marsh and Mr C. E. Major delighted a crowd which packed Scots Hall last evening. Before eight o’clock the fire brigate men declared the building to be filled and the doors were closed in the face of about 50 latecomers, who sought unavailingly for other means of entrance. The audience was a mixed one and, judging by the interjections and the volume oT applause, appeared to be about 60 per cent anti-gambling and 40 per cent in favour. Sir George Fowlds presided. The speakers were e£ch given half an hour to develop their main arguments and 15 minutes to reply, Mr Marsh, as the opener, having five minutes in which to close the debate. It was agreed that there should not be any call for a decision.

“WHITE-WASHING A BLACK LIE.” Air Alarsh said he read with astonishment the remarks made by Sir Edwin Aiitcheison at the annual meeting of the Auckland Racing Club and announced his intention of not mincing words. A preliminary difficulty was that thero were two Air Alajors, a Dr. Jekyll in some respects ot his arguments, and a Mr Hyde in others. He had said that all life was a gamble and that if they destroyed the gambling spirit they destroyed the motive factor. “Is that correct i"’ Air Marsh asked Mr Alajor. “Partly so,” Air Alajor replied. “Without calling Air Major a liar. I am going to say that there is such a thing as a /white lie and a black one,” Air Marsh continued. “I am going to say that that statement is a black lie white-w’ashed, and that again without calling Mr iVlajor a liar. Because life was occasionally lost in surgery it was not right to say that surgery was murder. The aim of surgery was to save life. The aim of the gambler was to obtain something lor nothing. There was a fundamental difference between the risks of business lile and the wagering of the gambler. THE BUSINESS SPECULATOR. Air Alarsh next turned to the speculator in business, which, lie supposed, was the crux of the question. “It is about time you got to it,” an interjector said. Air Alarsh quoted statements made by Sir Ernest Benn before the Betting Commission of tlie House of Commons to the effect that the speculator and the broker in futures were important and highly beneficial factors in making for the prosperity of those engaged in production and commerce. Tlie insurance companies knew to a fraction the risks they took and charged premiums accordingly. They converted uncertainty ot being able to meet obligations into certainties. The gambler converted certainties into uncertainties. Sir Edwin Aiitcheison had made much of an assertion that the gambling instinct was inherent in the human race. “If that is the case, lam strangely defective, a mental’ deficient,” Air Alarsh said. “I have taken part in sport, but I have never felt the urge to gamble on it.” “You do look like one who would lay the odds,” a voice from the back called. “The curse of sport is gambling,” Mr Alarsli continued. “When money comes in at the door sport flies out of the window. This is why the Rugby Union expels any of its members found gambling.” (Loud ironic laughter). ALL LIFE A GAAIBLE. Air Alajor said that every statement made by Air Alarsh could be answered. He would defend the stand taken by Sir Edwin Aiitcheison. He was guiltless of anything save support of the totalisator as approved by the State and the Racing Conference, but he pleaded for a fair deal for the bookmaker until he was convicted. Like parsons and publicans, bookmakers might be good, bad or indifferent. (Laughter). “I contend'that all life from its beginning to end is a gamble,” Air Major said. Gambling had developed with man’s intellectuality. Air Alarsh had said that gambling made money run like water. To where did it run ? “Ellerslie!” someone answered quickly. By gambling money was not lost; it was simply transferred from one man|s pocket to another, and eventually it tound its way into the pockets ot the shopkeepers, Air Alajor asserted. Air Marsh had been solicitous for the welfare of tho working man, but the best picker of winners was the working man. The worst pickers were the owners. (Laughter.) He knew that at Ellerslie money had to be taken from the commission office in order to pay out at the windows at which smaller investments were made. NO ONE COMPELLED TO BET. Gambling could not be eradicated. How coulu gambling, speculation or enterprise be’ separated p Without speculation or enterprise there would be no progress. The expeditions to the polar regions were gambles, and so were the pioneer flights of the aviators. If all these were permissible why cavil at the working man who put five shillings on a horse in the hope that he would receive £5 or £lO in return if the horse he backed won ? No one was compelled to bet at the races. “i have had back-chat from a corpse,” said Air Alarsh in his reply. He declared that his challenge had not been answered. The statement that gambling was ineradicable was what might be expected from a true blue out-and-out Tory who believed that everything' should, be left as it was. Mr Major said that money invested on the totalisator did not go into one pocket, but all of it was distributed and the percentage taken by the Government was used for the support of the hospitals. “To say that racing is necessary to maintain tho standard of horses is rot,” Air Alarsh said in closing. “We might ae well ask for cock-fights to improve the poultry and for bullfights to enhance the quality of beof.” Air Major contended that he had the right to speak for a further five minutes but the chairman recalled the terms of the agreement and declared the debate closed.