CASUAL NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 308, 27 November 1936, Page 2

CASUAL NOTES

(By “The Watcher.”) A BOOKMAKER’S TROUBLES. Auckland is a city that likes to do things on the grand scale. It has something of that kind on hand regarding a bookmaker. A man following that occupation was brought before Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., and sentenced to two months’ gaol without the option of a fine. In sentencing him the S.M. stated that he had already paid £585 in fines and served one month’s imprisonment. Apart from the bookmaking business, the man referred to is said to have a good reputation in Auckland for charity, help to persons unemployed, and so on, but the Magistrate firmly held his duty was to administer the law, and inflicted the sentence stated. As a result Auckland is in a ferment, and a petition signed by over 10,000 persons has been sent to the Government asking for a review of the sentence. It will be interesting to see what will be the result.

The law against bookmaking is bracketed with the totalisator. The State draws large revenues from the tote, but nothing from the large sums which pass through bookmakers’ hands. Many persons are of opinion that bookmakers should be licensed and their incomes specially taxed, but the racing authorities of New Zealand are totally opposed to any legalised opposition to the totalisator. So the law stands, and ive think is likely to remain. The Auckland case may result in an agitation to legalise the ‘bookie,” but the law must be upheld. The U.S.A. provided a striking proof of the danger of a law regarding alcohol being unsupported by public opinion. At present the totalisator is the recognised medium of betting on horse racing, and it is doubtful if the present Government would care to undertake the responsibility of proposing any change. BOXMAKERS’ CLAIMS.

Pity the sorrows of a New Zealand statesman! No sooner is one hurdle safely negotiated than another springs up before him. The guaranteed prices tor butter and cheese are in full operation and British prices are keeping well up, but suddenly conies -a bolt from the blue I The boxmakers of the Dominion have raised the price by an amount which puts the whole dairy industry in a fix. At a meeting of the Manawatu and West Coast Dairy Companies’ Association last week it was stated that revised invoices had beem received from boxmakers for supplies since July 1 of the present year and that prices had gone up from Is 4fd last year to 2s for this year, an increase of 67 per cent The total increase for the Dominion would be over £300,000 for and £52,000 for cheese crates, which have been raised from Is 9d to 2s 6£d. One does not, of course, wish to take a side in the dispute. The boxmakers naturally say the whole cost of labour lias been raised and- that from the felling of the trees, hauling to the mills, kiln-drying, and final manufacture of the boxes they are faced with higher costs, which must be paid by the industry. At the meeting it was stated that “it would cost the individual dairy farmer in the Manawatu £1 for every 10001 b of butterfat produced” for his boxes. It remains to be seen what the Government can or will do to. soothe the dairymen and factories over this unexpected rise in prices. That the makers “mean business” is evident, and it devolves upon the Government with the legislation they have passed, at command .to satisfy the dairymen of the equitability of the new prices, or grant such subsidies as will 'equalise matters. THE OPPOSITION. Mr Adam Hamilton, the newly-elected •Leader of the Opposition, is finding already that the road is a rocky one. He, of course, was a member of the original Reform Party, and the claim has been put forward by Mr Kyle, M.P. for Ricearton,' that the new Opposition Party should be simply Reform and nothing else. On the other hand Mr Hamilton much more wisely urges that all past party titles, names and affiliation should be dropped, and that the Nationalists' appear as a newparty with a new policy. In this the writer thinks he is wise. The country is now clearly divided into two great divisions—Socialists and anti-Socialists. The former include all the supporters, in Parliament and out of it, of the party now in power, and the latter must include all who believe in liberty, freedom, and personal initiative. Between the two classes a great gulf exists, and those who wish to see the best traditions of our race carried on in New- Zealand will instantly see where the true future of this Dominion lies. From now on electioneering wjll he carried on vigorously by both sides. Mr Hamilton, one may be sure, will leave nothing undone as Leader to bring to the polls every man and woman who favours his party, but before that there is much work to be done. For example, what is to be the policy? What will the Opposition Party have to offer the people ? A great deal will depend upon how the finances of the country work out under Labour. Wo do not think Mr Hamilton will be in any hurry to declare a policy which can be outbidden by the party in power. Mr -Seddon’s plan was always to have a trump card which he played on the eve of the elections—a very good plan, no doubt; but it was on “an assured finance” he chiefly stood. Under him every year there was a big surplus which ho passed on to the Public Works Fund. It is on this point Labour is likely to go wrong, and though all revenues are booming, especially Customs and racing, it is still a good way to the election, and booms are generally followed by slumps. A strong and well led Opposition is a good thing for the country, and though in the present House its number is small, a great deal can he done if matters are handled properly. At present Mr Hamilton is new in the saddle, but he seems to be going about things in the right way and every nonSoeialist in the Dominion will wish him luck in his new job. SPAIN AND EUROPE.

The terrible bloodshed which _ has characterised the civil war in Spain still continues. The British Government has led the way in seeking to prevent the Great Powers from being mixed up in the tragedy, but it is at least doubtful if they have succeeded at all points. The cabled advices lead to the impression that Italy, Germany and Russia are all in underhanded ways seeking to assist one side or the other. Almost any day a torch may be applied to the magazine and Europe may be in flames. No doubt Spain is in an awful state, and all we can hope is that the turmoil will end in peaceful democracy, and will not be a cause of general European war.